Nightmare
by Eclipse of Light
Summary: The monsters are called out on a new assignment, and it's there that they find their toughest challenge yet: A virtual nightmare come to life. Rated T for violence and possible character death.
1. Horror Movies

**All righty, here's my first large MvA fanfic. Keep in mind that this will most likely be pretty long, and it may be a bit scary for some younger readers. Thanks and enjoy!**

**WARNINGS: Scary scenes, character torture, possible character death.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Monsters vs. Aliens.

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**Nightmare**

**By Eclipse of Light**

**Chapter 1: Horror Movies**

_The ground shook beneath her feet, making her sway and come dangerously close to falling. Just as she had regained her balance, the ground seemed to explode from underneath her and she was sent flying backward. She hit the ground with a grunt and rolled over just in time to see the creature come barreling down on her._

_"Hannah!" someone called, but she couldn't hear it over the roar of the creature that was now chasing her. It came closer and closer as she ran, screaming for her life. She tripped and fell, throwing her hands up over her face to avoid seeing what was going to happen next..._

_A horrible scream was wrenched from her body as the giant creature began to rip her limb from limb. Her male companion screamed as well and went running back to his car. He fumbled with the keys for a few terrified moments, listening helplessly to Hannah's screams behind him. The keys hit the ground with a clink and he cried out with fear as he bent over to frantically feel for them in the darkness._

_Then everything was ominously calm and quiet._

_He turned. No sign of Hannah or the creature. No sign of the horrible massacre that had just taken place there. The only indication that something wasn't right was the giant hole in the ground where the thing had come up from. Panting, the male looked around frantically. He still hadn't found his keys, but this lull had given him some time. He once again bent over to look for them, taking them up into his hands. As he unlocked the door and climbed inside, he put his head against the steering wheel and wept slightly at the loss of his girlfriend._

_Then the ground moved again._

_Once more fumbling with the keys to get them into the ignition, the man let out a yell as his car was suddenly lurched to the side. The thing came up out of the ground in front of him and he let out a scream, holding onto the car for dear life as if that was going to save him. The creature came down on him, jaws clacking as it screeched. He screamed some more, his voice meshing with the voice of the creature..._

"What are you watching?" Susan asked as she came into the room and flipped the light on. Link made an adamant noise and waved his hand in her direction, his eyes still on the massive screen on one wall of the room.

"Ehh! Turn the light off! It's just getting to the best part!"

BOB and Dr. Cockroach tended to disagree, as they sat on the couch beside Link and were hiding their eyes from the screen by leaning against one another. BOB let out a small squeal when he risked taking a look and once again hid his vision from the screen on Dr. Cockroach's shoulder.

"Turn it off, turn it off!" he yelped.

Susan put her hands on her hips and shook her head, "Link, you know these types of movies scare BOB. Now he'll never sleep."

"Shhhh!" Link hissed with another wave of his hand in Susan's direction.

Susan didn't take kindly to being shushed in such a manner and huffed once before strolling over to the screen and turning if off. Link let out a groan and tossed his hands into the air, but BOB and Dr. Cockroach seemed grateful for their friend's intrusion.

"It was just getting good! Come on!" Link whined, giving Susan a look.

Susan put on her best stern face (which happened to be a pretty good one) and scoffed at Link, "It was scaring BOB and Dr. Cockroach, Link. You could have at least turned it off long enough for them to leave the room."

"Aw, they were just being babies. It's only a movie."

Dr. Cockroach slid off of the couch, dettaching himself from BOB's grasp as he did so and wiping his clothes free of the spilled popcorn that littered the place, "A scary movie, Link. You told me it wouldn't be that scary."

"How in the world are monsters afraid of a monster movie?" Link asked with a confused blink in his friends' direction, "Seriously, they're monsters! They're just like us!"

"We don't eat people," BOB pointed out in a quiet, slightly higher-than-normal voice.

"The point is, Link, it scared them," Susan said, her voice full of annoyed exasperation, "You should have turned it off when they started covering their eyes."

Link shook his head in disbelief before digging down into the popcorn barrel and tossing more of the kernels into his mouth, "I live with a bunch of wusses."

"Well that may be, but you don't exactly have a choice in the matter," Dr. Cockroach pointed out. He then turned to BOB, who was still huddled into a ball on one corner of the couch, "Are you all right, BOB?"

BOB nodded, his eye wide, "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm terrified of giant snakes, but I'm fine."

"It wasn't a snake, it was some kind of worm thing," Link said in an annoyed voice, "And it wasn't real, BOB. It was a movie. It was fake."

"It was still scary!" BOB shot back with more malice than anyone had thought him capable of. Granted, it wasn't mean by most people's standards. Just mean by BOB's standards.

Link took a step backward and tilted his head, "Well, geez, I'm sorry. I didn't know the movie would scare you guys this much." His voice told everyone that he was more annoyed than sorry, however.

"Okay, you guys, we should probably head off to bed." Susan said, "We're going to Colorado to check on that Bigfoot sighting tomorrow, remember?"

"I dunno if I can sleep..." BOB whined, pouting a bit, "Link scared me."

Link let out an undignified huff at this, but said nothing.

"BOB, you can sleep in my room tonight, if it will help," Susan offered, giving the blue blob a small smile. BOB nodded enthusiastically in response to this. "Okay, go ahead and head over there. I'll be there in a bit."

BOB nodded again and he and Dr. Cockroach headed off toward their chambers. Susan, meanwhile, fixed Link with another glare.

"I should make him sleep with you tonight," she said to him, "Let him keep _you_ up with his nightmares, since you insisted on making him watch that movie. But I'm afraid you may try to scare him again."

Link rolled his eyes, "I wouldn't try to scare him again. Geez, Susie, I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I know," Susan said, her voice softening a bit, but her glare still fixated on him. Link gulped a bit and took another step backward. Apparently Susan's wrath scared him quite a bit more than any old horror movie.

"I really am sorry," Link tried again, this time with more sincerity to the statement.

Susan nodded, dropping her hands down to her sides again, "I know you are Link. You just need to be a bit more careful, is all." She looked around the room, which was littered with candy wrappers and spilt popcorn, "And to make you pay for scaring BOB, I'm leaving you here to clean up," she said with a smirk.

"Hey, now that is not fair!" Link retorted.

"And why not? You scared BOB, and since he can't sleep in your room, you get to clean up after the mess you caused."

"I'd rather have him sleep in my room."

"Well too bad. He's already in mine." Susan crossed her arms and stuck her tongue out at Link as she made her way out and toward her chambers. Link grumbled to himself and began to pick up. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't quite as immune to scary movies as he'd originally thought, because now that he was alone in the room, his imagination began to run wild. Though he suspected that's what Susan had intended in the first place.

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By morning, all three of the guys had wound up in Susan's room. When she woke up, she found them huddled together on the smaller bed that she had insisted putting into her room for situations just like this. It made her smile, to see them all huddled together like that. Granted, when they woke up, they'd probably deny it had ever happened.

As Susan tossed her legs over the edge of the bed, she let out a huge yawn accompanied by an incredibly large stretch. Boy did that ever feel good. Letting out a contented sigh, she dropped her arms back to her sides on the bed and looked around a bit. They were heading to Colorado today, which was at least a two hour flight, if things went well. Susan had never been to Colorado, but her parents had met in Aspen on a ski trip, so she'd always wanted to go. It looked like a nice place.

Just as she was about to stand up and head into the kitchen to eat, she heard Link groan. Smirking, she once again turned her gaze toward the boys, eager to see how Link would react when he discovered he'd been literally cuddling with the others during the night. As adorable as the visual was, she was sure it would embarrass them to no end. Especially Link, who was the self-proclaimed "manly-man" of the group.

He awoke rather slowly, his tail actually waking up before the rest of him. It sort of flopped up and down for a few moments before Link's head popped up and he gazed around bleary-eyed for a bit. He blinked a few times, then looked down at where he was. Giving a light yell, he propelled himself backward off of the other two boys.

"Yeesh..." he said to himself as he rubbed his head.

"Good sleep?" Susan asked, and Link jumped at the sound of her voice. Evidently, he hadn't known she was still there.

"Oh, uh...yeah, yeah. Good. You?"

Susan giggled, "The movie scared you, too, huh?"

Link rolled his eyes, then gave Susan an embarrassed grin, "Yeah. Yeah, it did."

"Good." Susan stood, once again stretching for a few moments, "Let's go get something to eat before we get too busy for the day."

Link nodded, "Yeah."

Together, they walked out of the room and toward the kitchen/dining room area, which also housed the large screen the boys had been watching the movie on and the couch. Several couches, actually, including one large enough for Susan to sit on.

Susan took a seat at her large table and leaned back in the chair. Link climbed up to the table top and looked up at Susan, his eyes wide in a mock attempt at being cute. Unfortunately, cute didn't often work on Link. At least, not when he tried to be cute.

"Are you still mad at me?" the fish-ape asked in his normal gruff voice. Susan chuckled.

"Of course not," she said with a smirk, "The movie scared you too, so I guess you learned your lesson." She reached down and gave him a gentle pat on the head.

"Good," Link said as he made a face of disgust at being patted like some sort of pet, "Just making sure."

It was at that point that the door opened and Dr. Cockroach came in accompanied by BOB.

"I'm terribly sorry, Susan," Dr. Cockroach said upon seeing the giantess, "I had no idea that the movie had scared me that much. I honestly hadn't expected to be sleeping in your room."

Susan giggled, "It's okay, Doc. Link wound up in there, too. It was like a big slumber party!"

Link's eyes widened and he looked up at Susan with a surprised glare. Apparently he hadn't wanted the other two to know that he had been scared too. Oh, well. Too late.

"Link slept with you, too?" BOB asked with a quizzical glace at Link, "Why?"

"I wanted to…make sure you were all right, is all," Link said, attempted to avoid BOB's wide-eyed glare at all costs.

Dr. Cockroach crossed his arms and gave Link a knowing glance, but said nothing.

"We actually just got up a little bit ago," Susan said in an attempt to change the subject, "You're just in time for breakfast!"

"Oh, yay!" BOB exclaimed as he made his way over to the smaller table that served for the boys. Dr. Cockroach followed and Link hopped down off of Susan's table to join them. Breakfast was served, though this time it was served on actual plates rather than through those awkward feeding tubes Susan had always hated when this place had still been a prison. The group scarfed down the food fairly quickly; apparently they were all hungrier than they had originally thought.

Shortly after breakfast, preparations to travel to Colorado began. They all met in the Briefing Room, where Monger told them all that was needed to know to successfully complete the mission. The idea was to get in and out of Colorado with little to no problems as far as the Bigfoot was concerned. Maybe a press conference, if everything went well.

After briefing, the group loaded up on the back of Butterflysaurus, and she took off into the air with no problems. They were off on their next mission, and there were no foreseeable difficulties along the way. Everyone assumed this would be one of their easiest assignments. I mean, how difficult could a Big Foot possibly be?

Boy, were their assumptions ever wrong.

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**Okay, so I just wanted to open this story in a way that showed how the group functions as a sort of family unit. I think I succeeded, and I think that the whole morning scene with the boys was absolutely adorable.**

**Please leave a review! I understand that this chapter may be a bit boring, but consider it a filler chapter if nothing else, to set the story up. Critiques will be accepted (and welcomed, actually! I love a good critique to help me out with my writing), but only if they're constructive. Any flames and their writers will be ignored.**


	2. Clara's Heroes

**Chapter 2, yay!**

**Two chapters in one day. Man I remember when I used to do this all the time in like, an hour. Now it takes me a whole day to line two chapters up. Ah, how times change…**

**Anyway, here's the second chapter! Enjoy!

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**Nightmare**

**By Eclipse of Light**

**Chapter 2: Clara's Heroes**

The temperature dropped considerably as they neared the high mountains of Colorado. There was a town, somewhere way down in those endless trees, where most of the sightings had been reported from. It was to this town that they were heading, however it seemed that there was no real safe place for Butterflysaurus to land. Too many trees to guarantee a safe landing.

They finally managed to find a place just outside of town, where the trees were cleared enough for a highway to wind through. Traffic had to be stopped to allow the landing however. But the police and highway patrol seemed perfectly happy to oblige.

Just so long as their citizens stopped getting terrified by this creature.

The monsters made their way down the short stretch of road between themselves and the town itself. They passed by a sign welcoming any visitors into the mountain town.

Welcome to Woodland Park

The City above the Clouds

"Above the clouds?" Link inquired as he read the sign then looked around, "They're not above the clouds…"

"They're high enough in elevation," Susan said with a slight hint of sarcasm to her voice, "Man, it's hard to breathe up here…"

All activity seemed to stop as the monsters entered the city. Everyone turned to look at them with a mixture of curiosity and terror. Some downright screamed, not even trying to hide the fact that they were afraid. Cars stopped in their tracks, the drivers sticking heads out windows to get a better view. One particularly unlucky RV couldn't stop in time and wound up plowing straight into the back of a pickup truck, the driver of which wasn't happy about at all.

Susan winced upon viewing this minor accident, "Sorry…"

As terrified as the citizens of this town seemed to be, it was clear the monsters were known here. Their names were spouted out among the people lining the streets, so obviously people had known they would be coming. The main question that seemed to be on everyone's mind at this point was whether or not the monsters currently strolling into their town could be trusted.

"Hello!" a cheery voice came from below, and Susan looked down. The voice had come from a cute-looking red headed girl, short by most standards, with light green eyes and deeply freckled skin. She wore a thick pair of glasses and dressed rather nicely, wearing a cute powder blue blouse and skinny jeans with flat shoes. Her perky voice had startled the boys in front of Susan, and they all stopped, causing Susan to nearly trip over Link. Since each one of them was fairly taller than the average human, every one of them had to look down to see this girl properly.

"I'm Clara!" the girl said with more perkiness than even her welcome had, "Welcome to Colorado, Monsters! If you'll come with me, I'll take you to where you're supposed to be. Your General will be joining us shortly as well. He's coming up from Colorado Springs, about a half hour away."

She said all this while walking, leading the monsters to wherever it was they were supposed to be. She also said it without taking a single breath in between. Link and Dr. Cockroach exchanged a look, and Susan simply rolled her eyes with a smirk. BOB seemed to be the only one actually listening to the greeter, his eye wide with interest. No one else could actually understand most of what she'd just said; again, except for BOB.

"So, what exactly are we here for?" Link asked once the perky Clara had stopped talking, "Something about Bigfoot?"

"Oh, I prefer to call it the Sasquatch," Clara said, blinking as she nodded rapidly, "But yes. Something about that."

"It's odd to hear about a Bigfoot sighting this far out," Dr. Cockroach stated, "According to the listings, most sightings over the past fifty years have been from the Pacific Northwest."

"Exactly!" Clara exclaimed, thrusting one finger into the air in a very Dr. Cockroach-like way, "Which is why this is so weird."

"I'm sorry," Susan chimed in from above, "But who are you again?"

"Oh, I'm Dr. Clara Thompson. I'm a cryptozoologist from Philadelphia. The Sasquatch has been among the many things I've studied over the past three years, and I've come to really adore the creature. I just love monsters." She turned to face each one of them in turn, "You guys are my heroes."

Everyone took this rather well, and seemed to puff up a bit in pride. It was nice to be considered heroes by someone. Most of the time, people took one look at them and ran away. Clara's acceptance of them made her annoying antics all the more bearable.

"Well thank you!" Susan said in response, her blue eyes lighting up at the notion that she and her friends could possibly be considered heroes.

Clara waved a hand in response, "No thanks required! It's the honest to God truth! I love you guys!"

She lead them to City Hall, where they met with the mayor and Sheriff. Not long afterward, Monger arrived with a few military personnel, having had to drive all the way from Colorado Springs airport (which had turned out to take much longer than a half hour), and more briefing was given. The monsters were then sent out into the nearby surrounding woods to find the so-called Bigfoot and bring it in.

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"What do you see?" Dr. Cockroach called into the small cave that Link had somehow managed to squeeze himself into to search. There were a few painful grunts and groans before Link's head finally popped out of the cave's entrance.

"Nothing in there but some kind of old tent city," the fish-ape said in a strained voice as he pulled himself out of the hole with help from Dr. Cockroach, "It was real nice down there actually. Cramped, but nice."

Susan let out a huge sigh, her arms crossed over her chest as she looked out over what she could see of the trees, "Where else are we supposed to look? This thing can't be too far if it's been attacking Woodland Park for this long."

"Well, maybe it heard we were coming and hightailed it out of here," Link said as he dusted himself off.

"Well, that would certainly make our lives easier," Dr. Cockroach muttered as he began to fiddle with whatever mechanical device he had this time.

"No one has any idea of where its lair may be," Clara stated from her spot beside Susan. She kept looking up at the giantess, marveling at how tall she was, "All we know is that it keeps coming from the east of the city and it disappears in that direction once it's done attacking."

"What exactly does it do when it attacks?" Susan asked.

"What do you mean?"

"How's it work?" Link asked, "Does it hurt people, just scare them, try to eat them, what?"

"Mostly it just destroys things. It makes a lot of noise to terrify someone and then destroys personal property like cars or houses. Once it dug up someone's yard."

Link raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms, "Are we talking about Bigfoot here, or a puppy?"

"It does seem a little odd that that's all it would do," Susan said when Clara pouted in Link's direction, "I mean, most of the assignments we're sent on are things that put people in some kind of danger. This just sounds like a regular vandalism problem."

"Clara, has anyone actually seen this Bigfoot?" Dr. Cockroach asked, putting a hand on the smaller woman's shoulder.

Clara nodded and her smile grew, "Oh, yes! There's a video that someone took from their house while the Bigfoot was destroying their backyard." She took out a small hand-held video player and began pushing buttons to turn it on and find the video, "It's really quite amazing!"

The video was far from amazing, really. It was grainy and obviously shot with a phone camera. All that could be seen was what appeared to be some sort of large humanoid creature flipping over picnic tables and breaking the window before the video went dead. Clara had a huge smile on her face as she looked between the monsters. Clearly she expected them to be pleased with this finding.

"Clara…I'm sorry to tell you this, but that video could be anything," Susan said as she stood back up from her crouching position, "Kids playing pranks or someone catching a criminal on video. It doesn't really look like Bigfoot to me."

Clara pouted up at Susan, "It's all right here in the video!" she exclaimed, holding the phone up toward her and shaking it a bit, "That family saw this thing tear up their backyard. Then it got into the house and attacked them."

"I thought you said it only did minor property damage?" Dr. Cockroach inquired, tilting his head to the side.

"Well…sure, but it still got inside the home and terrified the family! I mean, no one was hurt of course, but they thought it was going to kill them. They want protection from this thing, Doctor, we all do. It's scary!"

Link again raised an eyebrow. This whole thing struck him as very odd. But then again, he wasn't one to trust random people much. It had taken him nearly a month to trust Susan, and even then he never fully trusted her until he got to know her. And it was the same with Dr. Cockroach. But not with BOB. He trusted BOB practically from the moment he'd met him. Who wouldn't?

"We're going to figure this out, Clara," Susan said, giving the woman a small comforting smile, "I promise. We'll figure out what it is, and do something about it. Even if it is nothing more than vandalism."

Clara let out a relieved sigh and nodded, "Oh, thank you! You guys are my heroes, did I tell you that? I love you guys!" She moved in and pulled all of the boys into a group hug. She would have included Susan, but since the other woman was fifty feet tall, that wouldn't have worked too well. BOB returned the hug enthusiastically and Dr. Cockroach simply grinned. Link tried to match that grin, but there was still something gnawing at the back of his mind. Something about this whole thing wasn't right.

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**Well, the question is now this: Is Clara really up to something, or is Link just paranoid? Lol, I guess you'll just have to read to find out!**

**I decided to set this in Colorado because, while I've been to California several times, I don't actually know the state well. I live in Colorado, so I know the landmarks and cities better. Plus, it provides me with a unique setting! ^_^ And yes, for those of you who do not know, Woodland Park is a real city and their welcome sign does actually say that. And by the way, it is a very beautiful city as well.  
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**Please leave a review and a critique if you would like (make sure all critiques are constructive)! No flames, as they will be deleted and their authors ignored. Thanks!**


	3. Mysterious Figures

**I'm so excited over getting three reviews, you have no idea! Lol, I'm such a nerd. I always get all anxious when I check my email and see that someone's left a review, because I'm always afraid it's gonna be something bad. Each time I'm pleasantly surprised, which is very nice! ^_^ So, thank you to all my reviewers! You make me excited to continue on with this story.**

**And so, we shall do just that! On to chapter 3!

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**Nightmare**

**By Eclipse of Light**

**Chapter 3: Mysterious Figures**

"Okay, Kyle, where are you taking me?"

"Just keep your eyes closed, and trust me, okay?"

"I trust you, but where are we going?"

"You'll see!"

The teenaged couple made their way up one of the many hiking paths that spread out from Woodland Park. This particular trail led up to an outcropping that had a beautiful view of the city and the mountains around it. The only problem with this trail was that you had to know where you were going or you wouldn't be able to find the outcropping.

"Kyle, when are we going to get there?"

"Hold on, we're almost there!"

Kyle held both of his girlfriend's hands in his own, leading her up the trail and walking backward in front of her. He had found this view completely by accident, while hiking with his little brother the day before, and wanted to show the girl with him now. He figured she would appreciate it far more than his brother had. She always appreciated beauty in the little things.

Though his worry remained that, since she'd lived her longer than he had, she may have already found the outcropping.

"Okay, Brenda," Kyle said as he positioned her close to the edge of the rocks and moved behind her to wrap his arms around her waist, "open your eyes."

Brenda opened her eyes and immediately grinned, "Oh, wow."

"I thought you might enjoy it."

"Kyle, it's beautiful!"

She turned to give him a hug, but he moved in just the right way so that their lips met in the process. The kiss ended as quickly as it had begun, but the romantic tension was still in the air around them.

Brenda giggled, "Well, there you go! You got that first kiss you've been wanting."

Kyle gave her a soft smile, pushing her copper hair out of her chestnut eyes, "Yeah. It was nice."

"We could do it again, you know. If you want to, that is."

Kyle nodded, but it took him by surprise that she was willing to kiss him again. He had never kissed a girl before, and he doubted that the first kiss he'd ever given to a girl was that good that she'd be willing to do it again. Before he could do anything, though, Brenda leaned forward and planted her lips against his in a kiss, one that was a bit more passionate than before but nowhere near "make-out" standard. When the kiss was broken, Kyle's eyes looked a little glazed, and he had a dopey grin on his face.

Brenda chuckled, "I take it you liked it?"

Kyle simply nodded, "Oh, yeah."

"Good. Because if things go well, you and I will be doing that a lot more often."

That was something that both excited and terrified Kyle all at once. His first girlfriend! How…different.

He did smile though, and leaned in for yet another kiss. Just before their lips met for the third time, however, there was a strange rumbling noise. It startled them enough that they both just stood there for a few moments in silence until the rumbling stopped. Once it was over, the teenagers just looked at one another, unsure of what had just happened. Kyle made the suggestion that they head back down toward town, and Brenda agreed. With all this stuff about a Bigfoot in the area, no one wanted to be caught out alone in the woods. But hormones could make people do anything, and going out alone was on that list of stupid things to do at this point.

As the two of them turned to head back down the path toward home, a rustling noise came to their attention and a big black shadow moved into the path in front of them. Brenda let out a cry and jumped behind Kyle, who briefly wondered exactly why he was the one who was supposed to protect her. He was scared, too! And this thing was big, and he…well, wasn't.

"It's the Bigfoot!" Brenda hissed into Kyle's ear, her voice filled with fear. Kyle gave her a simple nod before the figure let out a growl and moved out of the shade of the trees and toward them.

And it wasn't quite what they had expected.

The couple began to step backward as the figure moved toward them slowly. But they had nowhere to go, with a cliff that dropped down at least thirty feet at their backs now. But the figure didn't seem intent on hurting them, just scaring them a little. It stopped about a yard away from the teenagers, just as they had reached the edge of the cliff.

"Okay, let's move around it," Kyle whispered back to Brenda, who now had her nails digging painfully into his shoulder, "I don't think it's going to hurt us…"

"No!" Brenda hissed, pulling him backward as he tried to move forward. This action threw them both off balance dangerously close to a thirty foot cliff. "We can't! It'll kill us!"

"Well, what else are we supposed to do? It has us trapped here!"

"I don't know! Throw a rock at it or something, but get it away!"

"Brenda, you can't expect me to just throw a rock at something like that! That will piss it off, and then it _will_ kill us!"

Brenda opened her mouth to retort but was immediately cut off when a loud thrum echoed off the landscape around them, literally sending a rumble through the ground and again pushing the teenagers dangerously off balance.

This time, they weren't able to catch themselves.

Both of them went tumbling over the edge of the cliff, each one letting out a loud scream. Without warning or reason, Kyle was suddenly caught by something that had wrapped around his ankle. He let out a grunt as he felt his leg stretch painfully to catch his body weight, and then yelled slightly when he heard a crack and pain shot down his leg. Yep, there went the ankle. As quickly as his fogged brain could manage to make him, he reached below him and grabbed a hold of Brenda's hand. This stopped her from falling, but sent more streaks of pain shooting up Kyle's leg and he let out another yell.

"Kyle! Kyle, are you okay?"

Kyle decided to lie, seeing the fear in his girlfriend's eyes, "I'm fine. Are you okay?"

Brenda reached up with her other hand to get a better hold on him to avoid falling, "Yeah…yeah. What happened?"

"I don't know…"

There was another thrumming noise that sent loose rocks scrambling off the cliff around them, then Kyle and Brenda seemed to be being lifted back up the cliff face. Kyle strained his neck to get a better view of whatever it was that had caught them, thinking for a moment that perhaps the creature they'd mistaken for a Bigfoot had saved their lives. When he got a good look at what had actually caught them, his eyes grew wide and began to panic.

He had to get Brenda away from it, even if it meant dropping her.

"Ah! Kyle, what the hell are you doing?" Brenda exclaimed when she felt Kyle trying to loosen her grip on his hands, "You're going to make me fall!"

"Let go of me, Brenda!" Kyle yelled at her, desperately trying to get her to let go of his hands, "Let go, now!"

"What is your problem?"

"Let go!"

It was at that moment that, as Brenda went to adjust her hold on him, he managed to pull his hands free and she fell. It seemed to happen in slow motion, her eyes widening in terror as she began to fall backward, away from the boy she had not moments ago shared a kiss with. Kyle averted his gaze from hers, determined not to see her fall.

As she fell farther and farther down the cliff, she saw Kyle get pulled back to the top by whatever had caught him. She screamed when she realized that her boyfriend had let her fall. It was a scream of terror and rage. He'd let her fall! He'd pushed her away to her death and let whatever it had been save only him. The bastard. She had only enough time to scream this name up at him before she felt the pain of hitting a rock and all went black.

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**This is probably the shortest chapter so far, but by far the most exciting, hehehe. Well, at least I think so anyway. .**

**Anyways, please leave a review and/or critique (constructive comments only, please, as usual). No flames.**


	4. Cryptids and Suspects

**Nightmare**

**By Eclipse of Light**

**Chapter 4: Cryptids and Suspects**

One of the campgrounds usually reserved for tourists and the like had been taken over by the military and made into a sort of head quarters for the group. Tents had been set up around the area, each one being used as either a sleeping area, a dining area, a cooking area, and one tent was even set up as a rec room with games and the like. Several vans and large trailers dotted the area, each one holding different intelligence systems used by the military at Area 5X most of the time. One tent had been converted into an intelligence center, since Susan could fit into the tents but not the trailers.

Susan and Clara had been placed inside one sleeping tent together, while the boys had been placed in another a few sites away. The tent was just large enough to Susan to crawl into and she could crouch down, but nothing much else could be done there besides sleep. Which was all well and good, because she would most likely be spending the majority of her days working.

Right now, it was about eleven o'clock at night. The hum of the generators used to power the computers (since no electricity ran to the campground) could be heard, and it was slowly lulling Susan into a tired sleep. The generators had been designed by Dr. Cockroach to power the computers effectively without putting too much strain on them, the environment, or the people who had to move them. Their only major flaw was that they were loud. Much louder than any normal generator ever made.

While Susan was slowly falling asleep, Clara was lying on her stomach on her cot, a flashlight on and some kind of book open on her pillow. The smaller woman hadn't even changed into her sleeping clothes yet.

"What are you doing?" Susan asked as she rolled over to see the shining flashlight bounce off the side of the tent, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Hmm?" Clara asked, looking up at Susan, "Oh, this is one of my cryptozoology books. I'm reading about a few of the animals I've had to study over the last couple of years. It's really interesting."

"Oh, I see," Susan said sleepily, "Well, do you think you could wait till morning? That flashlight is really bright and I need to get up early tomorrow to continue our search for your elusive Sasquatch."

Clara made a face that said she was only partially sorry for that, "Oh…I'm sorry, I didn't realize…"

"It's okay. It's just that any kind of light that's brighter than a moon at night usually keeps me up."

"I'm really sorry about that," Clara said, a bit more sincere this time, "Can I keep it on long enough to change?"

Susan offered the other girl a tired smile, "Of course you can."

Clara literally bounced up out of the cot with an energy Susan couldn't have even mustered in the middle of the day, let alone at night. The smaller woman reached into her bags and pulled out a pair of sweat pants and a tank top, both an obnoxiously bright pink, and began to change.

To pass the time, Susan figured she may as well have a short conversation with her roommate, "So, what kinds of creatures are in that book of yours? Besides the Sasquatch, of course."

Clara's eyes lit up, "Oh, all kinds! From well-known ones like the Kelpie or the Loch-Ness Monster or the Kraken, to lesser known kinds like the Ahool or the Scolopendra Primamplio."

The last part of that sentence made no sense to Susan and she made a face somewhere between tired and confused, "The what-now?"

Clara looked up at the giantess as she pulled the sweatpants on, "The Ahool is a giant bat, by most accounts. And the Scolopendra Primamplio is a huge centipede."

Susan shuddered, "A huge centipede? Gross!"

"Oh, but absolutely amazing. The strangest thing is, though, that all accounts of sightings took place over a hundred years ago. There's nothing recent in the books that describes the creature. All I have are old drawings and stories."

"So, how do you know it's not like, extinct or something?"

Clara waved a hand as she pulled the shirt over her head and began unzipping her sleeping bag, "The books say it would have to be. Which is a real shame, considering that I'm sure it would have been a sight to behold."

Susan raised her eyebrows, "Yeah, that would be something."

Clara zipped herself into her sleeping bag and shivered, "Ooh, it's a cold night! I should have packed better pajamas, I think, heh." She rolled over and grabbed the flashlight, shutting it off, "Goodnight, Susan."

"Good night."

Susan figured she shouldn't have even asked about what was in the book. Now she was slightly creeped out, thanks in large part to the fact that she had a fairly overactive imagination. Why was she afraid of a monster, she _was_ a monster! Link had said that exact same thing just the other night.

Sighing, she rolled over in her cot, pulling her sleeping bag up over her ears. Clara was certainly right about one thing: It was a cold night.

* * *

The next morning found Susan waking up at about six o'clock, to the bellowing voice of General Monger. The giantess woke up and groaned, rubbing at her eyes. Apparently, Clara hadn't heard the call, because when Susan looked over the much smaller woman was still snoring in her bed. How she had missed Monger's loud voice, Susan wasn't sure. All she was sure of was that she wished she could sleep that soundly.

Pulling the very over-sized sleeping bag out of her way, she threw her legs over the side of the cot and yawned. She tried to stretch, but her hands were stopped by the rough canvas of the top of the tent. Blinking a few times, and giving the tent's roof an irritated glare, Susan stood up to the best of her abilities and made her way to the tent's entrance. She had to literally crawl through the opening to get out. Once outside, she stood up straight and stretched for a good long time. Man, did she ever hate cramped spaces.

As she was ending her massive stretch, the boys approached her. Link raised an eyebrow and smirked a little, "Good sleep?"

"No, not at all," Susan said as she yawned again, "I'm actually missing the facility, to be honest."

"Seriously?" BOB asked as he looked up at her wide-eyed, "I like it out here, it's pretty!"

"Oh, it's gorgeous," Susan said in agreement, "But the sleeping arrangements suck."

Dr. Cockroach chuckled a bit, "Well, they did the best they could."

"I know," Susan said as she sighed, placing her hands on her hips, "Where's Monger, anyway?"

"He was here a little bit ago," Link said, rubbing the back of his head with a yawn, "But then again, you already know that."

Susan chuckled, "Yes, I do. Thank you."

It was at that moment that Monger came down the path toward them, his jetpack strapped to his back. It was a rare occasion that Monger ever made a normal entrance, and Susan wondered what on earth she thought would change about that.

"Morning, Monsters!" Monger's voice echoed off the trees around them, and Susan was certain even the people ten miles away in Woodland Park would be able to hear his voice. She winced a bit. "We have a new addition to our mission. Yesterday afternoon, two teenagers disappeared while out on a hike. The parents are assuming it's the work of the Bigfoot."

"Do we know where they were when they disappeared?" Susan asked.

"All they know is that the kids began their hike on one of the specified hiking trails, but didn't come home last night. Monsters, we need to find that Bigfoot, and fast. Those kids could be in trouble."

"They're not!" Clara's voice coming suddenly from behind the group caught them all off guard and they all turned to face her. She was definitely not happy, and didn't look sane either, though that was most likely because her red hair was destroyed from sleep. "Those kids are not in any kind of trouble, Sasquatch would never kidnap anyone," she said as she stomped up to them, "Those parents are overreacting. Their kids were probably killed by a mountain lion or something."

"Yeah, clearly getting killed by a big cat is so much better, right?" Link asked. Clara glared at him and he actually backed off a few steps, holding his hands up, "Hey, I'm just saying that there's some flaw in your logic, girly."

"What flaw? There is no evidence that Sasquatch would kidnap two random teens."

"There's no evidence that it wouldn't either," Monger countered as he landed the jetpack, sending leaves and twigs flying and stirring up dust, "Until we get any real clues, Dr. Thomason, your Bigfoot is our main suspect."

Clara gave Monger the same glare she'd given Link, only he didn't back off like Link had, "I'm sorry, Dr. Thomason, but that's the way it is. We were brought here to do a job, and if anything major happens between the time we arrived and the time we leave, it has to do with the job. Bigfoot is our main suspect, until we can find evidence to the contrary."

"_Sasquatch_," Clara began, looking around at all of them and emphasizing the word. Clearly she didn't like the creature being called Bigfoot, "has never hurt anyone, in any sighting ever reported. He's only been seen from long distances, and has occasionally destroyed property. But no one has ever gotten hurt when he's been around."

"We're not saying they've been hurt," Dr. Cockroach said, with a shrug.

"Yeah, just kidnapped," Link added.

If it was even possible, Clara's glare deepened, "I'm sure none of you would want anyone to paint you into a less-than-positive light," she said, looking at each of the monsters in turn, "You're all monsters, but you're good people. You're heroes. Sasquatch could be like that, too. Misunderstood."

"Clara, I know where you're coming from on this," Susan said, "but we need to think about the possibility that Bigfoot – sorry, Sasquatch – could have taken them. All of us have done bad things in the past. We were…reformed, I guess you could say. Hell, until he was commissioned to help save the world from an alien invasion, Dr. Cockroach was an evil scientist who was trying to take over the world."

Dr. Cockroach would have blushed if he could, and gave a small embarrassed smirk, "Well, ah, that's true…"

"That doesn't mean Sasquatch is like that," Clara said, crossing her arms and giving a pout.

"Look, Clara –" Susan began.

"Monsters, move out!" Monger interrupted with a small glance at Clara, "Daylight's wasting, and you need to find me a Bigfoot!"

The monsters each exchanged a glance and headed off toward the dining tent to have some breakfast before briefing. Monger looked over at Clara as the group departed, a small amount of regret in his eyes. Clearly, he didn't want to be the bad guy here. But his job commanded that he treat this monster like he treated all the others, despite the fact that it could quite literally be the good guy Clara was trying to make it out to be.

"Dr. Thomason –" he began.

"No, you listen to me," Clara said with a hint of darkness to her voice he didn't think she was capable of, "You are making a huge mistake by going about this this way. Sasquatch is not like those monsters you took in before, Monger. And one of these days, you will discover exactly what a true monster is, you hear me?"

"Is that some sort of threat?"

"It very well could be, yes."

Monger chuckled, shaking his head, "Dr. Thomason, you have no idea who you are talking to, do you? I have been through more wars than any general in any division of the military. I have seen more death and destruction than you could ever know. I have lost pieces of me that I didn't even know I had, and you think that threatening me with some kind of imaginary monster that I have yet to encounter is supposed to threaten me? I am not an easy man to scare, Dr., and this is no exception." He put his hands behind his back and stepped away from her, "Now I am not trying to denounce your Bigfoot, nor am I trying to make it the bad guy here, I am just going on facts. And facts point toward your Bigfoot being the one to kidnap those kids, am I clear?"

Clara just glared, "It is not _my_ Bigfoot, and it's called a Sasquatch."

Monger didn't ask for an answer a second time. He simply raised his eyebrows and stared at Clara for a few moments with an unreadable expression on his face before turning and heading off down the path toward the dining tent. Clara watched him go, that glare still evident on her face.

* * *

**Okay, so another chapter down! Sorry it took me so long to get this posted, but I've been working on another big project of mine; an original story that I would like to get published when I'm done.**

**I should mention that I actually did research to find out what sort of cryptids would be in Clara's book. I never do research for fanfics, so that's a big deal for me. ^_^ The Kelpie, Loch-Ness Monster, Kraken, and Ahool are actually on the list of cryptids that I found online, and I did a huge amount of research on the Ahool to find out what it was. Boy, is it ever creepy. I have to say that if I was in Clara's line of work though, I'd study the Loch-Ness Monster. I find Nessie absolutely fascinating! What about you readers out there, what would you choose to study?  
**

**The huge centipede Scolopendra Primamplio is actually the creation of a friend of mine, whom I role play with. He created the character for a role playing game and gave me permission to use it here, which I am ever grateful for. Thanks, buddy! Hearts for you!  
**

**Next chapter should be up soon. Until then, go ahead and leave a comment or critique (constructive). As usual, flames will be deleted.**


	5. Lost and Found

**Nightmare  
by Eclipse of Light  
Chapter 5: Lost and Found**

**Happy Halloween!

* * *

**

The first thing he became aware of was the faint dripping of water on a rock surface. The next thing he became aware of was the awful pain in his ankle that throbbed all the way up into his thigh. It was definitely broken and would have to be fixed as soon as possible.

The oddest thing that stuck in Kyle's mind was that he seemed to be sitting straight up. No, wait. He was standing. Except that he wasn't actually putting any weight on his feet. He seemed to be tied up, and hanging from the ceiling. He tried to open his eyes, but couldn't, and began to panic. He panicked even further when he realized that his eyes _were_ open, he was just in a dark room. By the sounds of it, a cave.

What the hell had happened to him?

The last thing he remembered was dropping Brenda. Oh, God, Brenda! He hoped she was okay.

But what had happened after that?

He tried to wrack his brain, looking for anything that he could possibly remember. They had fallen off the cliff, something had caught them and started pulling them up… He had dropped Brenda. But why? All he remembered was being terrified, and then nothing at all. The world had gone black.

And it still was black, thanks to the pitch darkness of the cave. The fact that he was alone didn't help much. And being tied up didn't help at all.

And so panic began to overtake him and he struggled. Whatever was binding him seemed to tighten around his body and he found it becoming harder and harder to move. This only made him panic and struggle more. He let out a muffled yell, and realized that he was gagged. This was not a good situation _at all._ He had to find out where he was and get away.

_Welcome, Kyle Beckett,_ a voice came from nowhere, seeming to echo through his head rather than the cave itself.

Kyle let out another yell, and this one actually echoed a bit.

The voice chuckled, _Oh, now none of that. Come time, you will find all this silly struggling futile, and will no longer try. Best save your energy, dear young man, for when I finally decide to let you go. _If_ I decide to let you go. You may succumb to me before that time arrives._

Four crimson dots appeared in front of Kyle's vision, closely resembling eyes without actually looking like eyes. He screamed to the best of his ability as whatever belonged to those eyes moved toward him, praying that he would wake up soon in his bed and this hellish nightmare would be over. Unfortunately for Kyle, that wasn't bound to happen for a while.

* * *

"Did anyone else notice that Clara's whole standpoint on this Bigfoot seemed to change overnight?" Link asked as the group moved down one of the many paths that led off into the woods surrounding the town. Dr. Cockroach was close behind him, scanning the area with some kind of machine of his own invention. Susan was just behind Dr. Cockroach, trying to see if she could see anything from her height, to no avail. BOB trailed behind, completely fascinated by the world around him. It was quite clear the blue blob hadn't seen the woods much yet, as every facet of them seemed to intrigue him in new ways.

Susan, who was only half paying attention to her green fishy friend, said in a distracted voice, "What do you mean, Link?"

"I mean," Link said in a voice that proved he knew no one was listening but was determined to talk anyway, "that the girl was all too happy to see us and ask for our help in getting rid of this thing. But the minute we blame it for the kidnappings, she jumps to its defense and tries to rip us a new one. I mean, did you see the look she gave me?"

"Well, I like her," BOB said from behind the group, stretching around to get a good look at Link from behind Susan's leg.

Link turned to look at his blue friend, eyebrows raised, "BOB, you like everyone."

Dr. Cockroach spoke up now, his amber eyes locked onto the device in his hands, "Link, you receive that look more often than you think, you know."

"Yeah," Link said in a voice that could barely be heard, "but it's never scared me before."

This brought Dr. Cockroach's eyes up from the device and he looked at Link with mild surprise and amusement, "Scared you? Sweet little Clara scared you?"

Link glared at Dr. Cockroach, "You obviously didn't get a good look at the look she gave me."

"Honestly, Link, I have a weird feeling about her too," Susan said, and they all turned to look up at her, "I don't think she's being entirely truthful toward us."

"See?" Link asked, gesturing toward Susan.

"But I don't think she's scary," Susan said, smirking in Link's direction. The fish-ape scoffed and continued on down the path. Apparently he, the bravest of the monsters in this group, was the only one frightened by a five foot, five in red head in thick glasses. Go figure.

"Hey, guys, look!" BOB exclaimed from behind them. They all stopped to turn around and face the blob, who was looking sadly at a small gathering of flowers that had been crushed under what appeared to be a large footprint. "Someone crushed the pretty flowers! How mean!"

Susan knelt down beside her friend, putting a hand on his head as she bent to examine the flowerbed, "This is a very large footprint."

"A Bigfoot print?" Link asked as he moved closer as well. It may have sounded like a joke, had he not been completely serious.

"Could very possibly be," Dr. Cockroach said as he too moved toward the destroyed flowerbed and ran his device over it, "It does seem to be harboring some rather abnormal readings."

Susan looked up in the direction that the print seemed to be pointing. There was a small path there, barely seen if one wasn't specifically looking for it. Two or three other large footprints led up the path toward what seemed to be some sort of outcropping of rocks. As she stood up, she could barely see the outcropping become a steep cliff as the path reached the edge. Up at the top of the path, where it led out into some sort of picnic area/scenic view, there was what appeared to be a shoe of some kind.

"Up there!" Susan said, pointing up the path, "Follow the path, there's something up there!"

No one questioned the order as they all ran directly up the path. It proved to be a more difficult trek than they had originally thought, and was quite steep. But they did make it to the top of the path and onto the outcropping of rocks. Sure enough, there was a steep cliff there that made Susan more than a little queasy. She had never been comfortable with heights, which was ironic, since she was a half inch short of fifty feet tall.

Dr. Cockroach went straight toward the item of clothing, which was indeed a shoe.

"I believe this belongs to one of the missing teenagers," he said as he scanned it, "Most likely the male."

"So what happened to them?" Link asked.

"That is the question, isn't it?"

BOB seemed to be the only one comfortable with moving anywhere near the cliff, and he looked down. It was more out of curiosity than anything else, and he certainly hadn't been looking for anything. But he found something, and it was something he wasn't happy to find.

His eye widened and he suddenly yelped, pointing down the cliff face, "Hey, guys! Guys, look! Look, there's someone down there! I think it's a girl!"

It was then that the others dared to venture close to the cliff and look down. Sure enough, about fifteen feet down there was a girl lying on top of one of the rocks that jutted out from the cliff. She was clearly hurt, and clearly unconscious, if not dead. She matched perfectly the description of Brenda, one of the missing teens. Susan let out an audible gasp, covering her mouth, "Oh, my…"

"She's quite lucky she didn't fall further down the cliff…" Dr. Cockroach noted. Had his skin been a more human color, he would have been incredibly pale at the sheer height. As it were, his normally copper colored skin was just a shade lighter than normal, the only "paling" he could manage with his complexion.

"Lucky?" Link asked. Obviously his description of "lucky" would have been not falling off of the cliff at all.

"We gotta help her!" BOB said, becoming more and more frantic as the seconds ticked away. No one had the heart to tell him that it may be too late to help her.

"Try to reach her!" Dr. Cockroach said, patting Susan's leg frantically. The giantess nodded and got down onto her stomach, reaching over the cliff's edge toward the girl on the rock. It was easy enough to reach her, and soon enough Susan had pulled her back up onto the outcropping, setting her gently onto the ground.

Dr. Cockroach immediately rushed over to her and began looking her over. Obviously she was injured. No one could fall that far and not have at least a few cuts, if they were that lucky. But the fact that she had fallen fifteen feet and hit sheer rock was enough to make him believe that she was dead. Still, it didn't hurt to try. He checked for a pulse, not expecting to find anything, and blinked in surprise as he turned to look at his friends.

"What?" Susan asked with wide eyes.

"She's…she's still alive," Dr. Cockroach said in a breathless manner, "She's still breathing."

"Dude, that's insane," Link said, "We need to get her to a hospital, like now."

"I'll contact Monger," Susan said as she reached for the communication device that hung off her belt. She stood up and walked a fair distance away from the group to make the call.

Link and BOB moved in closer toward the girl, both looking extremely surprised. Dr. Cockroach seemed equally baffled and simply looked up at them with a shrug, "She is very lucky."

"I'll say," Link said in response, "Do you think the Bigfoot did this?"

"Could be," Dr. Cockroach said as he turned his gaze back to the girl, "If that's the case, then this is much worse than we thought it to be."

"Yeah, and Clara's precious Bigfoot ain't as sweet as she's making him out to be."

BOB seemed confused, but this was no different than normal. He was looking around, as if expecting something. "Hey," he finally said after a few moments silence, "where's the guy? We found his shoe, but not him. Where is he?"

"That, my friend, is a very good question," Dr. Cockroach said.

"He could have fallen farther down the cliff than his girlfriend here," Link said with a slight shrug.

"How very optimistic of you," Dr. Cockroach said, raising an eyebrow toward his friend, "No, I prefer to think he's still alive. And if he fell off that cliff, he's _not_ still alive."

"Plus, I think someone would find him down there," BOB chimed in, "I mean, it's not like he'd be hard to miss once he's that close to town."

This was a good point, and neither one of them could deny that fact. A very busy bike path just outside of town led past the bottom point of this particular cliff face. Anyone paying even an iota of attention would see a body lying there along the path as they rode by. It astonished both of them that BOB, of all people, had thought of this before they had. Neither one of them said anything, but they did turn to look at him with mild surprise.

"What?" BOB asked, "Did I miss my mouth during breakfast again?"

As he proceeded to wipe away at the food on his face that was not there, Susan approached them.

"Monger's contacting the local paramedics and sending up some EMT's to help her out," she said, "Any sign of the guy?"

"Nothing," Link said, "Maybe he was taken by the Bigfoot?"

"That could very well be."

"He could also be injured," Dr. Cockroach piped up, "In which case, we need to find him as quickly as possible before something awful happens to the poor lad."

"Yeah, like dying, maybe?" Link asked with another shrug.

"Again, you are so optimistic," Dr. Cockroach stated, shaking his head.

* * *

As the group waited there for the EMT's and paramedics to arrive, none of them noticed the eyes on them. A very human pair of eyes narrowed as the group continued to chat. They were staying by the girl's side, which was surprising for some odd reason. One thing was abundantly clear: These monsters had to be dealt with. Luckily, there were ways to get that to happen. Having friends in high places always worked out to one's advantage if one was patient enough.

As the medical workers came rushing up the hill, the owner of those piercing eyes disappeared into the brush without ever being seen or heard…

* * *

**Okay, so it's a little late in the day, but it's an update just in time for Halloween! It took me FOREVER to get this chapter written, and it was annoying as hell. I still don't think it's quite right, but I wanted to update on Halloween night, so here it is. Sorry for the suckage! The writing muses seem to be working against me lately, and it sucks!  
**

**Anyways, please leave a review or critique! I will try to update soon, I promise! As usual, flames will be deleted. Thanks!**


	6. Eerie

**Nightmare  
by Eclipse of Light  
Chapter 6: Eerie**

**Enjoy!

* * *

**

The moment Brenda woke up in her hospital bed, she freaked out. She had no memories of anything past the Bigfoot appearing in front of her and Kyle, and was sure that the creature had taken her boyfriend away. When she was told she'd fallen off a cliff, she freaked out further. She had a nervous breakdown when she was told by her parents that Kyle was missing, and still hadn't been found.

So by the time Monger and Clara showed up at the hospital to question her, she was practically catatonic and on about a hundred different meds.

"Don't expect a clear answer from her," the doctor said as they stood outside the door to her room, "She doesn't remember much about what happened, and when she does remember she tends to freak out."

"We'll be gentle," Clara said with a soft smile.

"Also, I wouldn't recommend pushing her too far," the doctor continued, "If she doesn't remember, then she doesn't remember, and that's all there is to it. No point in trying to dredge up something that doesn't exist in her mind. If she can't answer any of your questions now, but can later, I'll give you a call."

"We got it, Doctor," Monger said in a voice that was surprisingly soft for someone who was so often loud.

"Can we go in now?" Clara asked. Oddly, her voice was louder than Monger's, and the general looked over at the smaller girl with a raised eyebrow. They were in a hospital for crying out loud! Couldn't she be….not perky for five minutes?

Brenda was lying on the hospital bed on her back, staring up at the ceiling with wide eyes, her hands linked together by the fingers on her stomach. She was clearly awake, but not all there. Obviously, the meds were doing their job at keeping her calm. She gave Monger and Clara a brief glance as they entered, but returned her gaze to the ceiling as they approached her.

"Hi," was all the dazed teen said, "Who're you?"

Clara slid in front of Monger, who scowled a bit but stood back for the moment. "I'm Clara," the female scientist said, "And you're Brenda, right?"

Brenda nodded, "I'm Brenda."

"Brenda, sweetie, do you think you can tell us what happened up on that cliff?" Clara asked in a sticky-sweet voice.

It was at that point that Brenda turned her gaze toward Clara and let it linger there. Clara blinked and took a step backward, slightly off put by the nearly dead look in the teenager's eyes. Despite the fact that her eyes seemed blank, there was a slight flicker of anger lying just beneath the surface that made Clara cringe slightly.

"Kyle's dead?" Brenda asked, her voice deadpan.

"Now, we don't know that, little lady," Monger piped up, his voice surprisingly soft and – could it be? – soothing, "We're doing everything we can to find him."

Brenda shook her head, "No…that thing took him."

"Thing?" Clara asked with a slight tilt of her head.

Monger perked up a bit, "The Bigfoot?"

Clara shot him a glare.

"Bigfoot…that was there, too," Brenda said, her voice sounding far away as she looked back toward the ceiling and squinted a bit, as if trying to see what had happened play out on the tiles above her.

"…'too'?" Clara asked.

"We saw the Bigfoot…It was there. Then there was something else."

"Something…else?"

"Something bigger. It made sound, something deep that made the ground shake. When we fell, it pulled Kyle up, and he dropped me to save himself." Her voice had become higher pitched now.

"To save himself," Monger asked, "or to save you?"

Clara looked at him with a furrowed brow and narrowed eyes, "He dropped her to save her? That makes no sense."

"It does, if whatever it was that was pulling them up could somehow harm her more than falling fifteen feet down a cliff could," Monger said as he crossed his arms, "You're the expert on freaky creatures. You should know if there's something out there that would warrant dropping your girlfriend if it means avoiding something worse."

Clare's expression became completely unreadable, as if she was thinking several things at once, "Am I to understand that Bigfoot is no longer a suspect here?"

Monger spread his arms wide, shrugging, "I have no idea what's going on here, Dr. Thompson. All I know is that I highly doubt the Bigfoot uses sound to attack. If it does, then those books I've been reading need some heavy updating."

"I saw it," came Brenda's voice from behind them, "the Bigfoot."

They both turned to look at her.

"It…it talked to me…"

Monger quirked a brow, looking as though he didn't quite believe this, "Sorry?"

"It talked to me. I woke up on the rocks after I fell. It was there. It told me to hold on and that help was coming."

Even Clara didn't seem to believe this as she stared in disbelief at the girl. She exchanged a look with Monger, who simply said, "I see…"

"Sasquatch doesn't talk…" Clara whispered to Monger, "Clearly she was hallucinating."

"You think?" Monger hissed back with a sarcastic tone.

Clara once again glared Monger's way before moving closer to Brenda in the bed, "Did you see the other creature, Brenda? The thing that attacked with sound?"

Brenda shook her head slightly, "No. Kyle did, I didn't. And he dropped me…"

Monger sighed, "We're getting into things we've already heard, here. We should go, let her rest."

"I think we should see if she remembers more," Clara whispered back, her eyes still on Brenda.

"We've done all we can do here. Remember what the doctor said? Don't push it. We've got enough information for now, now let's go."

He took a gentle hold of her arm to begin to pull her out of the room, and her entire demeanor changed. She pulled away from him, actually letting out a growl as she did so, and her eyes seemed to change for just a split second. Had he not been looking her directly in the eyes, Monger would have thought he'd imagined it.

Her eyes had turned completely black.

It was only for less than a half a second, but the black emptiness of the eyes that were usually so full of sweetness and light was enough to give him the willies. He actually took a step back from her and blinked in surprise. Her eyes were no longer black, but whatever anger Clara had been feeling toward Monger still lingered in the air; she was even still slightly snarling. Monger raised his eyebrows and stared at her for a few more moments, unsure of what had just happened.

After what seemed like fifteen minutes, but was probably much closer to a few seconds, Clara seemed to calm down. She gave Monger a curious look, tilting her head to the side as she looked him over.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

Monger slowly nodded, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. We should go."

And without another word, he turned and walked out of the room. He could hear Clara's high heeled shoes echoing along the floor behind him. God help him, he was starting to agree with Link.

Something about that girl was just not right.

* * *

**Okay, so chapter 6 is finally done. It's a bit short, but I thought it was pretty good, and I'm actually quite proud of this one. I thought the one word – Eerie – pretty much summed up everything that happened in this chapter, so I decided to make it the title. Basically, I suck at chapter titles, and I'm sorry for that. I don't know why I insist on naming them, to be honest.**

**Anyways, as always, leave a comment or critique, and flames will be deleted. Thanks!**


	7. Very Odd Behavior

**Nightmare**

**By Eclipse of Light**

**Chapter 7: Very Odd Behavior**

**Enjoy!

* * *

**

"I think we need to keep an eye on Dr. Clara Thompson," Monger said after he had finished relaying the story of what had happened at the hospital to the monsters. The four monsters had sat and listened to the entire story, which was short but eventful.

"Are you sure you saw right?" Dr. Cockroach asked.

"Doctor, I am trained to observe everything around me at all times. I know what's going on behind me right now and – Treenan, put that down!" The man behind Monger had been messing with something that was most likely highly combustible and Monger had reprimanded him for it without turning around. Treenan blinked and placed the object back down on the consol where he had gotten it from. Monger shrugged as if to say "see?"

"I know what I saw, Doctor," he finished, his little display having explained it all.

Susan had to keep herself from physically snickering. Some of the things Monger did both amazed and amused her all at once. Link was looking back and forth between Monger and Treenan with awe on his face, and Dr. Cockroach simply blinked a few times and said nothing. BOB was fascinated with something that was shining in the sun on the edge of the tent, and more than likely had not heard a word of the entire story.

"What exactly _did_ you see, though?" Susan asked, "I mean, how do we explain black eyes that flash back to normal?"

"Maybe she's a monster too?" Link asked with a shrug.

"Why would she hide that around us though?" Susan asked, "She seems to trust us…"

"And I think that by now Susan would have noticed something were that the case," Dr. Cockroach said, "She does bunk with the woman, after all."

Monger looked at Susan, almost looking her over, "_Have_ you noticed anything odd?"

Susan shook her head, "Nothing, no. I mean…she's odd anyway, in that she's way too perky, but other than that, there's nothing. She seems normal."

"Keep in mind that you're asleep for at least four hours during that time though," Link said, "That's four hours or more that Clara can do whatever she wants with."

"No, I'm a light sleeper," Susan said, looking around with a sigh, "especially in the woods. I'm not a big 'woods' person."

"Yes you are," BOB said, "You're really big."

Susan giggled a bit, patting BOB on the head, "Yes I am, but that's not what I meant."

Link let out a sigh, looking at all of his friends in turn, "I'm really confused here…"

BOB laughed, "Hey, so am I! I'm always confused!"

Link gave him a look that was a cross between annoyed and just plain tired, "Yeah…I know, BOB."

"Actually, I'm quite confused as well," Dr. Cockroach said, "Even my superior intellect isn't able to decipher this tangled web of…oddities."

"Just when we think we're getting close to finding the answer, everything changes," Susan said, shrugging slightly, "I'm pretty confused, too."

"Let's just say this for now:" Monger said as he held his hands up and looked at each of them in turn, "Bigfoot is still a suspect, but now we need to keep an eye out for something…else. If you see or hear anything weird, you let someone know. Immediately! Understood?"

Everyone, even BOB, nodded in agreement.

Just then, there was a rustle from the entrance of the tent and Clara walked in, looking around. All of the monsters immediately tensed up, wondering just how long she had been standing outside and how much of the conversation she may have heard.

"Wow, this is impressive!" Clara said, looking at Monger, "You guys really go all out, don't you?"

Monger shrugged, more relaxed than his colleagues had been upon Clara's entrance, "We like to be thorough. Anything we find is immediately logged and examined here, that way we know just what is going on at all times."

Clara gently fingered a small photo of something that looked like a Bigfoot footprint, examining it for a few seconds, "So…what exactly have you found so far, then?"

"Everything we've found, we've shared with you," Monger said matter-of-factly, as though telling her that there was no reason for her to pry. Something inside Susan told her that he was trying to tell Clara that there was no reason for her to be inside this tent at all.

"I see," Clara said as she straightened up and leaned against a small table, "So what are ya'll talking about now?"

"The interview with the teenage girl," Monger said, crossing his arms over his chest and looking Clara over as if trying to determine what she was doing in the tent. Clara didn't seem to notice this, or if she did, she didn't seem to care.

"Yeah, that was odd, huh? I mean, there was a lot there that didn't make sense."

"You have to understand that she's still trying to process exactly what happened to her," Dr. Cockroach said, "She won't have all of the facts because she's not sure of them herself."

"And those facts that she is sure of, she'll most likely just repeat over and over until the rest makes sense," Susan added, looking at Dr. Cockroach for conformation. Dr. Cockroach nodded, giving Susan a small impressed smile, "Precisely!

"Yep, that's what happened when General Monger and I interviewed her," Clara confirmed, "She told us what happened, then went back to the beginning. Poor thing must be so confused…"

"I would be too, after something like that," Link said.

BOB snickered, "You said you're confused right now, remember? And nothing even happened to you!"

Link gave BOB a look, urging him to shut up before he said too much. Of course, the one time BOB remembers something, and it has to do with the things they had been saying behind Clara's back. That would be their luck.

Clara tilted her head, "What are you confused about?"

Link swallowed hard, unsure of what to say.

"We're just trying to figure out what could have possibly taken the teenage boy," Susan said in an attempt to take the attention off of Link, "I mean, according to what General Monger has told us, whatever knocked them off the cliff and pulled the boy back up was obviously not the Bigfoot, yeah?"

Clara nodded, "Yeah."

Susan shrugged, "So…we're confused. If it's not the Bigfoot, then what is it? And why is it here?"

"And what does Bigfoot have to do with it, if anything?" Dr. Cockroach added with a curt nod.

Clara nodded in agreement, "I know. I'm trying to figure that out myself. I've looked through all of my books, and I can't find anything about a creature that attacks with sound."

Dr. Cockroach seemed to be lost in thought for a few moments before he asked, "Would you mind if I took a look, Dr. Thompson?"

Clara gave him a confused look, "Took a look at what?"

"Your books. I'm not saying you've missed anything, of course, please don't take offense. I would just like to see for myself what sort of creatures we may or may not be dealing with."

Clara let out a small but heavy sigh, which almost made it sound like it was difficult for her to breathe for a moment. She looked at Dr. Cockroach, as though looking him over, and finally gave a reluctant nod, "Sure, of course. The books are yours."

Dr. Cockroach gave her a soft smile, "Thank you, my dear. You'll have to show me where the books are, of course."

"Of course," Clara said.

She looked troubled, which was troubling Susan. Was it possible that Clara was so protective of her books that she didn't want Dr. Cockroach to touch them? She looked down at Link, who was looking up at her. The more they got to know Clara, the less they actually knew about her, and Susan was beginning to suspect that Link's initial misgivings about the girl were correct. Something about her was just…off. Susan couldn't quite explain it, but Clara Thompson was possibly more mysterious than the odd events they had been brought here to investigate in the first place.

Susan couldn't get rid of the feeling that Clara was trying to hide something in those books. But if that were the case, she wouldn't have said yes to Dr. Cockroach's request, would she? Susan wasn't so sure anymore what Clara's motives were. The girl hadn't exactly shown herself to be incredibly truthful this entire time, and she had changed her mind on several things on more than one occasion. Truth be told, Susan wasn't sure where Clara's loyalties lay, and she wasn't entirely sure at this point if the female scientist was stable.

Before long, they were able to get Clara out of the tent, with the promise that they were also leaving. Dr. Cockroach went off with Clara to get the books while BOB went to find some more leaves for an already-growing collection. Susan and Link went off to do some light investigating, trying to find something – _anything_ – that would explain even a bit of what was going on. Truthfully, Susan was surprised Link decided to join her. Despite what he liked to try to pass off as an active lifestyle, Link was actually pretty lazy, and didn't actually do anything unless he had to. Susan had nearly fallen over in surprise, therefore, when he'd made the offer to go with her.

The two walked in silence for a while along a path that eventually wounds its way toward a small lake where people usually went to fish or boat for a day of fun. Truth be told, Susan just really wanted to see the lake. She wasn't so much investigating as…taking a well-deserved vacation. She suspected Link wouldn't mind, since he was actually a water-based creature anyway, and had been complaining at the lack of swimming spots around here lately.

"What do you think is going on?" Link asked, breaking the long-standing silence between the two of them. Susan looked down at him and shrugged.

"I have no idea, Link. I just…really don't know."

Link sighed, "Look, I know I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but…I have a…you know, a theory?"

He said it as a question, as if asking whether or not Susan would want to hear it. It was the first time in a while that she'd seen him so unsure of himself.

"O—okay," Susan said, "Shoot."

Link shuffled a bit as he walked, "I think Clara's in on it," he said. He'd said it so quickly that Susan barely managed to catch it.

"Wait, what?" she asked, unsure if she'd heard him correctly.

"I think Clara's in on it," he said again, slower this time, "I think she's somehow helping…whatever this is. The Bigfoot or that other thing…I don't know. It's not actually a fully formed theory…"

Susan quirked a brow, "Link—"

"Look, I know it sounds crazy," Link said, "but I just don't trust her, Susie. She's been hiding a lot from us lately, and changing her attitude back and forth and just being generally confusing and weird. I mean, black eyes? I don't like Monger much, but I do trust him. If he says something happened, it probably happened, you know?"

Susan swallowed hard, staying silent. She wasn't sure what to believe at this point, and Link did have a few valid points. But Clara was sweet, despite her odd behavior. Susan just had a hard time believing she could be helping whatever it had been that had hurt Brenda and taken Kyle. Plus, she just didn't seem to know enough about the Bigfoot to be helping it with its exploits. One thing was for sure though: Susan wasn't sure that "Doctor" Clara Thompson was actually a doctor of any kind.

"You think I'm nuts, don't you?" Link said, breaking into Susan's thoughts.

"Not…entirely, no," Susan said, "You have a few good points. Clara is odd, but I…I just don't think she'd be in on this, you know? It…it doesn't make any sense to me."

"Why not?" Link asked. He was about two seconds away from whining like a child.

"She's not smart enough, Link!" Susan snapped, a bit louder and harsher than she had intended.

Link recoiled a bit, stopping in his tracks. He sighed, "She's not a real scientist, is she?"

Susan shook her head, "I don't think so, no."

Link looked suddenly angry, glaring up at Susan, "She's playing us!"

Susan nodded, "Yeah, I think so."

"And she's not doing a real good job of it."

The voice came from behind them and startled them both, so much so that Link actually let out a surprised scream. Monger stepped out onto the path behind them, and Link put a hand to his chest, taking a few deep breaths.

"Dammit, Monger! You just scared me half to death."

Monger looked as though he was trying not to smile as he moved closer to them. Susan had the sneaking suspicion that he had planned to scare them all along.

"I just heard from Dr. Cockroach," the General said, "It seems that our Dr. Thompson is attempting to hide a book from us. Dr. Cockroach asked about it, but she insisted it's a romance novel."

Susan physically had to keep herself from snorting at this, "I've seen all of her books. They all look like something a college student would receive after signing up for a class. They're all textbooks."

Link shrugged, "She could be hiding a romance novel somewhere. She strikes me as the type to like that kind of stuff."

Monger gave him a look, "You really believe that, Fish Boy?"

Link shrugged, looking amused, "If it annoys you, yes. I do."

"I can look around tonight before she goes to bed," Susan said, interjecting before an argument started between the two.

Monger nodded, "That's just what I was going to suggest you do."

Susan nodded in return, "Okay. I'll check it out tonight then, while Clara's still hanging around the fire."

"I'm fairly certain you'll find what I already expect," Monger said, "That out little miss Clara is hiding what she knows from us."

"The only question now," Link added, "is why she's hiding things from us at all…"

* * *

**As always, leave a review. Flames will be deleted. Thanks for reading!**


	8. Investigations

**Nightmare**

**by Eclipse of Light**

**Chapter 8: Investigations**

**Two chapters in one night, woot!**

**Okay, now the story's really starting to roll. The last couple of chapters were just filler chapters, really, but now we're starting to get into the thick of things. Enjoy!

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**

Later that night, Susan made the excuse that she was tired and headed away from the firepit early. Clara stayed there with the boys and a few other military personnel who had decided that making s'mores would be fun. Susan had a job to do, though; she had to find that book that Clara was keeping from Dr. Cockroach.

She crawled into the tent that she shared with the smaller female and fumbled with the teeny lantern, trying to turn it on. It was already considerably dark inside the tent, which made it hard to see the button used to turn the lantern on. That, coupled with the size of Susan's fingers compared to the button itself made getting light into the tent a task she hadn't counted on.

Once the tent was flooded with light, Susan began her search for the elusive book. It wasn't inside the suitcase Clara had been keeping her books in earlier, which was now empty thanks to Dr. Cockroach's removal of the books. There weren't really many other places to look besides there. Susan lifted Clara's thin mattress and looked around under there, surprised to find nothing. Sitting down on the floor, she looked around the considerably large tent. Where else would one hide a book? She sat there for a few silent minutes, thinking.

Finally, her own mattress came into her line of vision and Susan tilted her head. Surely Clara wouldn't hide things under Susan's bed, would she? Still, it warranted a look…

She lifted the mattress and blinked. There, placed under the mattress, atop the cot's green surface, was a big red book. Susan recognized it as the book Clara had been reading on their first night here, the one that they had talked about for a while before going to sleep. Curiously, Susan gently opened the book so as not to rip it in half (it was, after all, still incredibly small to her), and flipped through the pages absently. One particular picture caught her eye and she stopped, adjusting herself so that the light from the lantern better illuminated the page, and moved the book up closer toward her face, squinting to see the picture there.

The "creature" in the picture looked just like any centipede Susan had ever seen, except that this centipede was supposedly over forty feet tall. She assumed that this had to be the centipede Clara had told her about; the Scolopendra Primamplio, which were two words Susan wasn't even going to attempt saying out loud, as she knew she'd say them wrong. This thing had a lot of odd abilities, but the one that had caught her eye was its ability to create sound loud and deep enough that it was known to cause rock slides, and high pitched enough that people's ears would bleed.

It attacked with sound.

This was what they had been looking for since finding out about Brenda's accident. A creature that attacked with sound and it would certainly be more than big enough to pull two people up a cliff's edge. And Susan had to admit that if she saw that thing holding her, she'd drop whoever was with her too. Not only was it creepy as hell, but it had a long list of abilities that she wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of. Sure, most of them were only speculative, but she didn't want to find out if they were real.

Now the only problem was that Clara had told her that this particular thing was most likely extinct…

But why had Clara been hiding this? If it was extinct, then that's all she would have to say: That she'd found a creature in her book that had that particular quality, but that sightings hadn't been reported in over a hundred years and the thing was likely extinct. They would have understood that. Besides, Dr. Cockroach liked doing research, and wouldn't have minded at all looking it up.

Maybe Link was right. Maybe Clara really was in on this, whatever "this" was.

That brought up an entirely new question in Susan's mind. What exactly _was_ this? What had started out as a simple call about a Bigfoot had become so much more than that. It had become so much deeper and involved than any of them had imagined. It left Susan wondering just what was going on, and if the Bigfoot was even involved anymore. It had simply fallen back into the shadows.

A rustling from the front of the tent made her jump and she nearly dropped the book. She thought, at first, that Clara had come inside and caught her snooping around. But when she turned to face the entrance of the tent, she saw that it was only Dr. Cockroach.

"Did you find it?" he asked, as he came inside.

Susan nodded, "Yeah, here," she said, handing him the book, "I even found something in it. Doc, I think she was trying to hide it."

Dr. Cockroach looked the page over, his eyes widening significantly, "This…this is just what we've been looking for!" he hissed.

"I know."

"But why would she hide it?"

Susan shrugged, "I have no idea. My only theory is that she told me there haven't been any reported sightings of this thing in a long, long time. She thinks it's most likely extinct."

"Why wouldn't she just tell us that?"

"Again, I have no idea. I'm beginning to wonder if Link's right…"

Dr. Cockroach looked up at her, "Right about what?"

Susan sighed, running a hand through her hair, "He thinks Clara's in on whatever this is."

"Wait, what?" Dr. Cockroach asked, giving her a confused look, "We don't even know what 'this' is yet."

"I know that. I do."

"Still…" Dr. Cockroach closed the book, keeping his finger inside to mark the page he was on. He appeared to be deep in thought, and never finished his sentence.

Susan watched him for a few moments before speaking, "Still…what?"

"There have been some anomalies in a lot of what she's done since we arrived here," Dr. Cockroach said, "I mean, I do like her fine, and she seems very sweet. But I don't particularly trust her."

Susan blinked and nodded, "Yeah, same here. I'm not sure most of us do."

Dr. Cockroach closed the book and stuffed it under his coat to hide it. Normally he wore a white lab coat, but the colder weather here prompted him to trade the lab coat in for something a bit warmer. His coat was a dark color and was lined in white. It was very classy looking, actually, just like everything else he usually wore.

"I'm going to take this, all right?" he said to Susan.

Susan simply nodded, "Go ahead. You're the one with the rest of the books."

Dr. Cockroach nodded in return, "I'll sneak it back to you when I give the rest of Clara's books back to her. I should be done with them early tomorrow."

"Just…Doc, just be careful," Susan said, "There's a reason she was hiding that book, and if it's dangerous…"

Dr. Cockroach placed a hand on her knee, giving her a small smile, "My dear, I will be careful. I promise."

Susan smiled in return, "Good. Now get out of here before Clara comes back."

Dr. Cockroach took one of Susan's fingers in both of his hands and gave it a slight kiss, the equivalent of kissing her hand would she have been smaller. He then turned and hurried out of the tent as fast as he could. Susan found herself flattered and blushing a bit. That man certainly did have charm.

* * *

**Okay, it's short, but there it is. From here on out, the story should be more interesting than it has been.**

**I'm not putting any pairings in this story, before anyone asks. The whole Dr. Cockroach kissing Susan's hand thing was just something that struck me as something he would do. Despite the fact that he has a cockroach head, the man was still charming to me, lol. There's nothing romantic about the action in this context, but if you read it that way, so be it. To each his own.**

**As always, leave a review or critique and flames will be deleted. Thanks!**


	9. Attack

**Nightmare**  
**by Eclipse of Light  
Chapter 9: Attack**

**This has been a long time coming, and I do apologize for it. Really, I'm embarassed at how long it took me to get this going again. Just as I get the story going, I lose interest in it...and on top of that I've been terribly busy trying to apply to different schools and going on vacation and stuff. Plus a lot of family drama thrown in for good measure.**

**Again, I do apologize to all of you for keeping you waiting for so long. I hope you'll forgive me! ^_^**

**And now, without further ado, chapter 9! Enjoy!**

* * *

_I told you to keep them distracted. You're failing at your job._

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to. I've...it's just that I've lost track of the lies. I can't keep lying to them, they're figuring it out!"

_That's because one of them has managed to plant the seed of doubt into the others._

"S-sorry?"

_One of them is ruining this for both of us, my dear. You need to eliminate that weak link immediately, before he destroys us both._

She cringed as the tip of the thing's tail came around and gently caressed the side of her face. This wasn't at all what she had wanted to do, but she'd had no choice. And now she was locked up in this tangled web of lies and deception. She wasn't good at this sort of thing.

"I just think you need to find someone else who can lead them away from you. I'm not good at this."

_There is no one else._ The voice echoed around in her mind, sending chills down her spine. _I have no one else who can do this for me._

"I...I'm failing you."

_Yes, you are. But you can turn it all around. Eliminate the weak link, my dear. Bring him to me, and I will take care of the rest._

"But won't they notice if he just disappears?"

The voice cackled. _That's where you come in..._

* * *

Susan awoke to the shuffling and clattering of Clara scrambling around the tent frantically. She blinked her eyes open, rubbing the sleep from them as she sat up. What time was it? She didn't remember hearing Clara come in, which was odd, since she was such a light sleeper.

"Clara?" she groaned, half asleep, "What's up?"

"Uh, nothing!" Clara hissed back, "I'm fine, I just fell out of bed, is all."

She sounded shaken by something, and her voice seemed colder somehow. Susan felt chills run down her spine, but she wasn't sure if it was because of Clara's odd tone of voice or because it was actually chilly inside the tent. Well, it certainly couldn't be much past four in the morning, at her best guess. It didn't start warming up inside the tents until the sun rose at around five thirty.

"Are you okay?" Susan whispered back.

She couldn't see Clara, but she was fairly certain the girl had nodded, and was probably smiling, "Yes, I'm fine. I'm sorry, Susan. I didn't mean to wake you up."

"That's okay," Susan said as she laid back on her pillow. Clara's voice had returned to normal, and Susan was fairly certain now that the chill had been because of the cold and nothing more. She was panicking was all; Link's words had gotten to her and she was freaking herself out. If Clara was even involved, it wasn't like the girl was going to come out and randomly attack her for no apparent reason. She closed her eyes and welcomed sleep back into her life. It was the only time when she didn't feel the overwhelming sensation of stress creeping into her brain.

She awoke what felt like five minutes later, but had to be more than that because the sun was out. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, looking around. Clara was nowhere to be seen inside the tent, but the smell of bacon came to her nose and so she figured that's where Clara had to be. The girl did love to eat after all.

She crawled out of bed and the tent itself and into the open air, where she was promptly greeted by BOB's wide smile.

"Hey, you're up!" BOB exclaimed when he saw her.

Susan gave him a smile in return as she stood to stretch, "Morning, BOB."

"I smell bacon..." BOB said, looking off toward the tent where food was being prepared. Smoke from the grill could be seen rising up out of the tent, and boy did the food ever smell good.

"So do I," Susan said, sounding excited about it. She hadn't had bacon in a while, "Let's go get some."

She and BOB made their way to the tent, where nearly everyone who was awake had already gathered and begun eating. A member of personel who was in charge of keeping the monsters happy moved to help BOB create a heaping plate of food. Susan was left to her own devices, since she was the only person capable of lifting the large plates made for her without any strain. When she was done filling her plate with as much food as possible, she went to her table and sat down, greeting the boys as she did so.

"I'll return those books to you after breakfast," Dr. Cockroach mumbled to her with a small wink. She simply nodded, giving him a smile.

It wasn't long after this exchange that Clara came into view. Her red hair was tangled with sleep and her glasses were all askew. She looked like she had literally just woken up. She wasn't even dressed yet, and was still traipsing around in her pajamas. Susan found this odd, since she didn't remember seeing Clara in the tent when she'd woken up not minutes before. Clara, upon seeing Susan, stopped in her tracks with a look of horror on her face for a moment, then seemed to compose herself and entered the tent to get some food. Susan looked down at her friends, curious if they'd seen that. They were all too focused on their food to have noticed anything amiss.

"Good morning," Clara said quietly as she sat down with the boys, "Dr. Cockroach, were my books of any help to you?"

Dr. Cockroach nodded, taking the time to swallow before he spoke, "They were, yes. I couldn't find anything that matched what Brenda gave us, but I'm all the wiser for it," he gave Clara a small smile, "I appreciate you letting me use them. I should have them back to you after breakfast."

Clara waved a hand, "No big rush."

Susan was honestly a bit surprised at how well that lie had crept out of Dr. Cockroach's mouth, and she had to keep herself from looking awed at it. He had never struck her as the type of person who could lie so easily, and it had amazed her.

What also amazed her was how utterly rundown Clara looked. Her eyes were sunken and large black bags had appeared under them. She seemed skinnier after only the few weeks they'd been here and even now she wasn't eating her food. She was just staring off into space, lost deep in thought. Susan wished she could get into the girl's mind, find out what she was thinking. Though, if she'd had that ability, they might have solved whatever this was long ago.

"Clara, are you okay?" Susan finally asked, concern lining her face.

Clara looked up at her, almost startled out of her stupor. She gave Susan a smile, and Susan was taken aback at how sad the smile actually was. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just haven't been sleeping well, is all. But...well, you know that."

Susan nodded. Link looked at her, confused. Susan decided to elaborate on what she meant, "Clara fell out of bed last night."

"Ooh, I hate when that happens," BOB exclaimed, his attention fully occupied with watching a squirrel and a chipmunk fight over some kind of nut. Susan wasn't entirely certain if he was sympathizing with Clara, or the unfortunate chipmunk who had just been tackled by the squirrel.

"Are you all right?" Dr. Cockroach asked Clara, "Is there anything we can do to help?"

Clara shook her head, "No. There's not."

They all stared at her. Her voice seemed empty somehow, less happy and peppy. She looked like she was heavily burdened with something, but she obviously wasn't willing to share. She was lost deep in thought, her brow furrowed.

Dr. Cockroach and Susan exchanged a glance. Link simply watched Clara, and was surprised to find that he was actually worried about her.

Clara said nothing more, and they all returned to eating. Though the silence was a punctuated a bit more with a sudden awkwardness. No one knew what to do or say, but they all wanted to make Clara feel better somehow. How, they didn't entirely know, though.

When everyone was done eating and stood to leave from the table, Clara stood with them. She hadn't touched one bite of her food, but didn't appear to be too concerned about it getting cold.

"Link?" she asked, her eyes suddenly showing a bit more life than before.

Link turned to face her, "Yeah?"

"Do you think I could talk to you a bit?" Clara asked. Then she looked around, "Alone?"

Link blinked, looked around at his friends. With the exception of BOB, who had gone off to look at something no doubt shiny, they looked a bit surprised. Susan gave Link a nod, as though prompting him to go. Dr. Cockroach simply raised his eyebrows and shrugged. This was Link's decision in his opinion.

Link turned back to Clara and shrugged, "Yeah, okay."

Clara nodded, "Good. Thanks."

The two of them made off for a more secluded area of the campground, Link following closely behind Clara. Susan and Dr. Cockroach watched them go. Susan looked worried.

"Susan?" Dr. Cockroach asked, drawing her attention away from the retreating figures, "What's wrong?"

Susan looked down at him, "I'm not really sure. I just...Dr. Cockroach, should we keep an eye on them?"

"Dr. Thomason has done nothing to warrant spying on her personal conversations," Dr. Cockroach pointed out.

Susan quirked a brow, "We had to steal something from her to get any information, Doc. Forgive me for not feeling good about her taking Link alone into the woods, okay?"

Dr. Cockroach blinked, looking slightly saddened, "Well. You're a bit punchy this morning."

Susan sighed and rubbed her face, "I'm sorry, Doctor. I just feel really uneasy all of a sudden. Like, to the point that I'm actually getting an upset stomach."

Dr. Cockroach smirked, chuckling a bit, "I have something for that, you know."

"Will it make any part of me explode?" Susan asked.

"No, not at all, my dear. Come along."

He led the way back to his tent, where everything he'd been using on this trip was being kept. It was a small tent, only just a bit bigger than most of the other sleeping tents, though not nearly as big as Susan's. Susan honestly wondered how he was keeping so much in there. So far he'd had no less than fifteen different little gadgets (one of which had been nearly as big as him), a daily change of clothes, books, a computer, some trail snacks (which was comprised of mostly trash), a scale model version of a new saddle for Butterflysaurus, the equipment to build said saddle, dozens of pictures and diagrams, and a filtered water bottle. Susan could only assume it was because BOB needed literally nothing to survive that Dr. Cockroach was even able to fit half that stuff inside the tent.

The good doctor emerged from his tent carrying a small bottle full of something Susan couldn't quite identify. He handed it up to her with a small smile.

"Drink up. I have more of that where it came from."

Okay, so add "creepy bottles full of creepy liquids" to the list of random crap inside the tent.

Susan simply quirked a brow at Dr. Cockroach, who only motioned for her to drink up. Without a word, and putting all of her trust solely into the man who had once electrecuted her and nearly killed her twice trying to get her back to her normal size, she put the teeny bottle to her lips and tipped it up, letting the liquid fall into her throat. It tasted sour, then sweet, then hot. She coughed.

Dr. Cockroach laughed as he took the bottle from her, "That means it's working."

"What did-" Susan coughed, her voice nothing more than a hoarse whisper. "What did I just drink?" she asked once she managed to find her voice again. And how had it managed to affect her when the bottle that contained it was no larger than her fingernail.

"My own concoction. It takes care of an upset stomach caused by nearly anything. I figured now would be the perfect time to try it out."

Susan's eyes widened a little and she coughed again, "Wait...was I your guinnie pig just now?"

Dr. Cockroach nodded, giving her a slightly apologetic look, "Yes. I'm sorry. But did it work?"

Susan rolled her eyes when she realized it had worked and she couldn't stay mad at him for using her as a test subject like that. She simply nodded, sighing a bit.

Dr. Cockroach looked like he had suppressed the urge to jump up and down with excitement and instead just crossed his arms with a curt nod, looking proud of himself. "Good! I was hoping I hadn't created some odd poison or something."

Susan narrowed her eyes at him, "You were hoping? You didn't know?"

"Well, you see, I figured even if I had, you're too large for that amount of poison to actually affect you outside of mild flu symptoms."

"Right, but you didn't know what you'd created, which means it could have been strong enough to kill me."

She said it with such conviction that Dr. Cockroach felt the sudden urge to scurry away like the bug he'd accidently turned himself into. He stared up at the large woman and swallowed hard, a fair amount of fear in his eyes. He'd managed to piss her off, which was something he hadn't done in...oh, ever.

Susan just glared at him, "Lucky for you, it actually worked," she said through gritted teeth. Though Dr. Cockroach couldn't see it, she was actually trying to keep herself from laughing at the look on his face. It was a bit mean of her, but it wasn't often that she got the chance to freak him out a bit.

"Yes, heh. Lucky for me," Dr. Cockroach repeated, looking incredibly uncomfortable.

* * *

Uncomfortable didn't even begin to describe how Link was feeling at this precise moment as he followed Clara into the woods. They were going farther and farther away from the campground, which Link didn't like. He looked down quickly and noticed that Clara didn't have any shoes outside of a pair of fuzzy slip-on slippers.

"Hey, uh...don't you want some shoes?" he asked as he moved up beside her. He winced a little when she didn't talk and instead moved faster to get ahead of him again.

"Where are we going?" Link asked after a few more minutes of what seemed to him like mindless walking, "I thought you wanted to talk to me."

Clara nodded, a movement Link could barely see from behind her, "Yes, I do. Just a little further."

Link stopped in his tracks, "No, you know what? Here's good. I don't feel like going further." When Clara stopped in her tracks and didn't say a word or turn around, Link swallowed hard. He had to keep his resolve right now. "In case you didn't know, I'm actually really lazy. And I just had a big meal, so that doesn't help. I'm done walking." Then, in a nicer tone, "Okay?"

"I want to go further," Clara said.

Link wasn't sure he liked the fact that she wasn't facing him, "Clara...I think we should go back to camp now."

Clara sighed, "You planted the seed of doubt, Link."

Link looked confused and tilted his head, "Sorry, what?"

"They don't trust me anymore. They won't believe anything I say."

Link began to back away from her, back in the direction they'd come, "Okay, I'm going back now."

"No!" Clara called. Link stopped in his tracks, for the first time feeling the true, terrifying pang of horror well up deep within him. His eyes widened.

Clara's voice had changed. Like, alot.

"L-Look," Link began, barely managing to keep his voice from cracking, "I'm sorry, okay? I'll stop...planting the seed of doubt or whatever. I just want to-"

He was stopped short by what sounded like an extremely high-pitched scream. He covered his ears with a yelp and reeled backward. Clara still hadn't moved from her spot, still hadn't turned to face him, but had made the miniscule movement of putting her own hands over her ears.

The ground began to shake.

Before he even knew what he was doing, Link began to run back in the direction from which they'd come. He was not about to fight whatever this thing was, especially if it was as bit as that Brenda girl had made it out to be. He needed the others. He needed the freaking military for this one. And hell, he didn't like admitting it, but he needed Monger too.

The ground seemed to explode in front of him and he jumped back, rolling to avoid missing a huge rock that damn near took his head off. He turned around to look back at Clara. She had only now begun to face him, and her face was filled with terror.

Shit, she was afraid of this thing too?

Something came shooting up out of the ground and headed straight for Link. It looked like the stuff spiderwebs were made of. Link leaped to the side and the stuff wrapped itself around his leg, pinning him to the ground and making it impossible for him to run anywhere.

And that's when all hell seemed to break loose.

A creature slowly began to slither its way out of the hole in front of him. It came out of the ground, curled around itself and Link and stood up as high as it could go. From the ground up it was about fourty feet high. Another thirty or so feet of pure plated body curled around as well. Four crimson eyes stared down at Link and his mind fluttered back to the horror movie he'd forced BOB and Dr. Cockroach to watch not two weeks ago.

He had to be dreaming, he just had to be.

He tugged at the stuff holding his leg to the ground, finding himself still unable to move. This thing looming over him just stared, the plated body writhing and falling around him. No, he definitely wasn't dreaming, this shit was real!

For the first time since he could remember, Link panicked.

And he screamed.

The thing hissed and came down toward him, two large claws approaching him at maximum speed. Darts, or something resembling them, shot from the thing's head. One of them hit Link right in the neck, the other hit him in the arm. He blinked when he suddenly felt his whole body start to go numb. His scream was stopped short as his vocal cords seemed to just stop working completely. He went limp, paralyzed by whatever had been in those darts. He hit the ground with a dull _thwump!_

He was lying on his side, facing away from the thing. He couldn't see it coming for him. All he could do was close his eyes and wait for the inevitable to happen. Were the creature's body not in the way, he might have been able to see Clara. Surely she had to have known this was going to happen. She had to have.

Suddenly, and without warning, a familiar battle cry filled the air. Link's heart jumped and he would have smiled if he'd been able to move.

Monger!

Monger came out from the woods. He'd followed Clara and Link, had lost them briefly when he'd been distracted by one of the subordinates coming around asking questions about the itinerary for the day. He'd gotten back on course when Link had screamed. Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to see what had happened in between that time. All he knew when he arrived was that Clara was gone and Link was in a heap on the ground being attacked by some kind of giant centipede thing. His assumption was that this thing had attacked them and taken Clara, and was now coming for Link.

He attacked.

The jetpack he was using had confused the thing at first. It hadn't expected one of the soft mushy things called humans to be able to fly. Monger also had a gun, and it did know what one of those was. Its slave had told it of them. The bullets did no harm, of course, as they simply bounced off the tough plating coating its body. It was only when Monger aimed for, and hit, its face that it became truly enraged.

"Come fight someone who can fight back!" Monger taunted, firing again.

One of the bullets hit it square in the eye. The thing roared, sending a rumble through the ground that Monger was sure those back at the camp would be able to feel. He'd lost track of where they were in his haste to find Link and Clara, and so he wasn't even sure how far away from camp they actually were at the moment.

The thing then charged him, reaching a massive claw up toward him. Monger dodged in time to avoid being grabbed, but the claw managed to clip one side of the jetpack. He went out of control and had to eject himself from the thing before he crashed into a tree. He hit the ground, rolling to absorb some of the impact. The thing came after him, firing those poison darts his way. He dodged again, reaching for his communication device as he did so.

He needed help on this one.

And Link needed a doctor.

Before he could call for anyone, however, the claw came down and smacked the comm device out of his hand. He watched it fly off into the woods.

"Dammit!" he yelled, angry more than hurt. That was an expensive piece of equipment, after all!

"Link!" he called as he dodged more attacks by the crazed centipede, "Link, answer me, boy! Let me know you're all right!"

Link wanted nothing more than to do just that. But he couldn't get his voice to work. He couldn't move. He couldn't say anything. He desperately wanted to be able to get up and help. Monger sounded frightened, and that wasn't normal for Monger.

Monger was, in fact, very frightened. This thing was pretty big, and unlike most of the big monsters he'd found and fought against, smart. Usually "big" and "smart" didn't fit in the same package when it came to monsters. But this thing was watching him, and had begun to learn to anticipate what he was going to do next. He was running out of options, and soon dodging wasn't going to work any longer. From what he could tell, Link appeared to be dead, or at the very least unconcious.

This was not a good situation.

Link, in the meantime, was trying to move _something._ Anything would be nice at this point. But he wasn't even sure he had a body anymore, he literally could not feel it. It was like the sensation one got when they sat funny on their leg and it fell asleep, except that this was throughout his entire body. He was honestly beginning to wonder if he was dead. The only thing that kept him certain he was alive was the sound of Monger's gun firing off in the background and his voice calling out to him.

"Link, wake up!" Monger called again. He was beginning to wear down, which was scaring him more than anything else right now. Since when did his body fail him? Since when did he ever get tired? He was a superhuman, goddammit, he should be able to do this!

In his momentary distraction of annoyance at himself, he missed seeing the projectile fired by the creature. It came for him, and before he could react, it hit. The mess of stuff wrapped itself around him, keeping him from moving and making it impossible to stand. He suddenly felt very heavy, and he fell over. This was the stuff that had hit Link, only this time it had hit its mark.

The creature hissed with what appeared to be joy, and Monger actually began to panic when he heard the voice in his head say, _You'll do. For now._

The thing picked Monger up in his claws. It could hear the voices of those coming, those who had heard the screams and the thrum of noise. He'd have to come back for the other one later, when they weren't so aware of it. It made its way back toward the hole from which it had come and disappeared down into it.

Link looked around wildly when the noise suddenly disappeared. He couldn't hear Monger, where was Monger? He could hear voices approaching, his friends calling out to him, but he couldn't hear Monger.

Surely that thing hadn't gotten him?

"Link?" Susan's panicked voice called out. Link would have answered had he been able to.

Susan approached the area long before everyone else. Her longer stride had allowed her to make some great time. She swallowed hard when she saw the fallen trees from the attack and moved forward a bit more. Then she saw something that made her stop in her tracks and her heart jump into her throat.

Link.

He wasn't moving, and it didn't look like he was doing much breathing either. Tears filled her eyes.

"Oh, God, no...Link!" she called out, "Dr. Cockroach, BOB! Everyone, over here! I found Link!"

She didn't wait for a reply before she ran out toward Link. She knelt beside him and reached down, swallowing hard. She was honestly afraid to touch him, afraid of what she'd find if she did. But she had to know for sure...right? She had to know whether or not he was...

Before she'd had time to do anything, Dr. Cockroach approached the area. He quickly ran toward the two of them and knelt down on the other side of Link. BOB was behind him, and stopped when he saw what was going on. His eye became wide with fear, and Susan was sure he was about to cry. She quickly stood and made her way over to him while Dr. Cockroach examined Link.

Dr. Cockroach was just as afraid as Susan was about what he'd find when he approached his friend. If Link was indeed dead, he didn't want to be the one to find out. He swallowed hard, only to find that his throat seemed to have suddenly dried out.

"Link?" he whispered, reaching out to roll Link over so he was on his back.

He was relieved at what he saw.

Link wasn't moving, but he was very much alive, as evidenced by the raw emotion in the fish-man's eyes. And he was breathing too, though it was hard to see unless one was very close to him. As far as Dr. Cockroach could tell, Link was, for the most part, unharmed.

When more people began to trail into the area, Dr. Cockroach called out for help. They had to get Link back to camp and get him moving and talking again. They had to find out what had happened. To all who had stumbled upon the scene, it looked like whatever had done this had taken Clara and Monger and had nearly taken Link before they had come along. But whatever had happened, they needed to hear from Link himself.

* * *

**I'm not sure if I'm happy with this chapter or not, and I may rewrite it. I am writing it at about two in the morning too, so that doesn't help. Anyways, lemme know what you think. Should I rewrite it, or keep it the same? Maybe just edit it a bit? I don't rightly know, heh.**

**Hopefully I'll be updating this story a bit more and on a better schedule. For now, expect an update once or twice a week, hmm?**

**Leave a comment or review, and as usual, flames will be deleted. Thanks!**


	10. Fear

**Nightmare**  
**by Eclipse of Light  
Chapter 10: Fear**

**Yay, another update! Due to the positive responses I got on the last chapter, I don't think I'll be rewriting it. It's pretty long and took forever to write in the first place, and I'm worried if I rewrite it I'll mess it up completely. Besides, I'm lazy. Heh. Heheh.**

**Anyways, please enjoy this latest chapter!**

* * *

It took a few hours for Link to be able to talk again, and another half hour or so after that for him to be able to move even stiffly. So it was nearly nightfall before he was able to walk out of the tent (albeit with Dr. Cockroach's help) to speak with the others. Susan had insisted he stay inside and rest, but he wanted to share what had happened with all of them, and Susan was simply too large to fit inside the tent.

As Link came outside, BOB pushed a chair forward for him to sit in. He gladly took it, giving the blue blob a kind smile as he did so.

"Thanks, buddy," he said. BOB just nodded, looking worried even through his beaming expression.

"Link, are you okay?" Susan asked. She wanted desperately to be able to hug him tightly, but she knew that would probably crush him and kill him, which she did not want. He probably didn't want that either, now that she thought about it.

Link nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. Freaked out, but fine."

"What happened?" Dr. Cockroach asked as he pulled another chair forward to sit across from Link.

"I...I don't really know," Link said, shaking his head, "Clara led me off into the woods, and when I told her I was coming back here, something attacked me...or...us, I guess."

"You guess?" Susan asked, looking confused.

"Well, it sorta crossed my mind that she...summoned that thing from the ground to attack me. She mentioned something about how I 'planted the seed of doubt,' or whatever, and then that thing came up out of the ground-"

"What thing?" Dr. Cockroach asked.

Link, for the first time since coming out of the tent, looked up from the ground and made eye contact with Dr. Cockroach, "You remember that horror movie I made you guys watch?"

Dr. Cockroach scoffed, crossing his arms, "How could I forget it?"

"The monster in that movie? The giant worm thing? It looked like that."

Susan blinked, "What? How?"

Link shrugged, "I don't know, but that's what I would compare it to. But it had, like, a gazillion legs, and these claws. And it shot webs like a spide-"

"Wait," Dr. Cockroach said, once more interrupting Link. Link gave a slightly annoyed huff as Dr. Cockroach disappeared back into the tent. He exchanged a confused look with Susan, who just shrugged.

Before long, Dr. Cockroach came back outside, holding the book Susan had stolen from Clara. They'd never gotten the chance to return it to its hiding spot, and truth be told, Susan had actually completely forgotten about it.

"There is a creature in this book," Dr. Cockroach said as he sat back down and began flipping through the pages, "It's the creature we looked at and skipped over when Miss Brenda gave us her account of her attack. The supposedly extinct Scolopendra Primamplio. According to Clara's description of the creature, it looks like a giant centipede." He finally managed to find the page and pointed to the picture. He turned the page toward Link, "Link...is this what you saw?"

Link took a moment to process the picture, looking the creature over for a few seconds. Then, he visibly paled as he sat back in his chair, looking as though he were trying to get away from the creature pictured on the page. He nodded, though Dr. Cockroach didn't really need an answer by that point.

He closed the book and Link visibly relaxed. Susan looked both angry and saddened by the whole ordeal, and BOB just looked afraid. BOB couldn't remember the majority of information he took in, but the one thing he was absolutely certain he couldn't remember was the last time Link looked so visibly frightened. Link had always been the strong one in the group, and even when he was afraid he would jump into the fray and fight like the warrior he was. He never showed fear, not in all the time BOB had known him. BOB considered Link to be one of his heroes for this reason. Now watching Link show real terror and actually shrink away from something as simple as a picture, BOB felt afraid for him. He wanted to cry for his friend, and really wanted nothing more than to give Link a comforting hug and cheer him up with a joke.

Though even in his stupidity, he was pretty sure that wouldn't work at this point.

Susan looked as though she was about to cry, and in fact was fighting back tears. They burned in her eyes and she swallowed hard. She wasn't sure why she didn't want to let the guys see her cry. She had never been shy about her emotions around them before, and there was no real reason that she could find to be shy about them now. All she could figure was that Link's earlier comment, about Clara being the one who may have somehow summoned the beast, seemed to have really struck her hard.

The statement itself was odd. Surely no one person had the power to summon a creature of the sheer size and strength that this thing had to have been. It had taken down Link and captured Monger, two of the strongest members of their team when Susan was counted out, and had burrowed out of there fast enough to get away from them before they arrived at the scene. If Clara did have the power to summon something like that, then why hadn't Susan noticed something? Surely there had to have been signs of such power, right? Was she just that oblivious? If this was the case, then she was partly to blame for the attack on Link. Right?

"Hey," Link said, and Susan turned to look down at him, "You okay, Girly-Girl?"

Susan gave a light chuckle and shrugged, "Yeah, I guess. I just...I was really worried that...I was afraid we'd...we'd lost you. Heh."

"Aw, Susie. Glad to know you care," Link joked, giving her a small smile, "I'm fine, so you know."

Susan nodded, but she knew it wasn't the whole truth. He wasn't fine, not mentally or emotionally. She, like BOB, had noticed him shrink away from the picture of the Scolopendra Primamplio. And she, like BOB, was worried about it.

Link was one of her heroes too, after all.

"Susan, really," Link said with a curt nod, "I'm fine. I promise."

BOB, who was closest to Susan, reached out a hand and placed it on her knee in a form of comfort. Susan gave the blob a smile and sniffed a bit. Sometimes all it took was a simple touch. But sometimes Susan wanted so much more than that. She wished she could get a real hug from her friends when she needed it most, but she was just too big for that to happen.

This was one of those times that she wanted a hug. A nice, long, tight hug.

* * *

Dr. Cockroach had never been able to sleep very well, even before he'd managed to turn himself into a bug. His mind was constantly working, thinking up news ideas or trying to figure a way to fix the old ideas. It was actually physically impossible for him to get his mind to calm down enough to get enough sleep throughout the night. This was a normal thing for him from childhood.

And it had gotten worse.

From the moment they'd arrived in Colorado, nothing had made any sense. They'd met Clara and their lives had become nothing but a jumbled mess of confusion and questions. Was Clara the one behind this? Did she summon the creature, or was she working for it? Was she even involved with that thing at all? Did the Bigfoot have anything to do with it, or was this all just some elaborate ruse to get them all out here? Was there even a Bigfoot here?

All of these questions had managed to get stuck inside Dr. Cockroach's mind, and he was unable to rid himself of them. He was unable to sleep.

And it was frustrating.

He rolled over on his cot, staring at the dark ceiling as he let out a sigh. Every now and then, the silence was broken by a snore coming from one of the other two cots in the tent. He wondered absently what time it was, and if he'd managed to get any sleep at all. _Most normal people would classify this sort of thing as insomnia..._ he thought to himself. Great. Just what he needed.

His mind wandered to Susan. The poor woman had been distraught when it had come time to go to sleep. She didn't want to leave her friends, and she didn't want to sleep alone in the tent. One would have thought she was the one who had been attacked, with the way she was acting. It made sense, of course. She had been the one who had first seen Link, and the image of his seemingly lifeless body had probably burned itself into her mind. She didn't want to leave them for fear of having to see something like that again. And, if Dr. Cockroach knew anything about the human psyche, or even Susan herself, he knew she was probably blaming herself in some way for the way the attack happened. If Clara had been behind it, he was sure Susan would be berating herself for not noticing something sooner.

Truth be told, he was feeling a little at fault himself, even though he couldn't really think of a reason why.

His gaze drifted to Link, who was fast asleep on his own cot. It was amazing that he had been able to push his fear aside so quickly and fall asleep so easily. Dr. Cockroach was fairly certain he'd be having nightmares by now. Post traumatic stress often resulted from situations such as these. But Link had always been able to separate himself from that kind of thing. It was something that, oddly, Dr. Cockroach admired him for. In his mind, it meant that Link had an emotional strength no one else seemed to be able to find. It made Link a good fighter and a supportive friend.

He laughed silently to himself when he realized he'd just basically called Link level-headed. Yeah, right.

His mind wandered back to something Link had said. He'd completely overlooked it when he'd remembered the book he and Susan had...borrowed from Clara, but he remembered the statement later on, when he'd had some time to himself. Link had mentioned something about Clara saying he'd "planted the seed of doubt."

What did that mean?

If anyone had planted a seed of doubt it had been Clara herself. True, Link had continuously watered that seed, which was kind of what he was known for, but he hadn't planted it. What could have possibly put that idea in Clara's mind? Dr. Cockroach was skeptical at the idea of Clara having the ability to summon the creature, but maybe, just maybe, it was possible that she was working for it.

The question was, was she doing it of her own accord, or was she being forced?

It would certainly explain her strange behavior if it was a forced alliance. One moment she'd be fighting for the Bigfoot, determined to make everyone see that it wasn't the bad guy. The next, she was trying to draw their attention to it, as though trying to keep them distracted.

Bizarre.

And confusing.

His gaze now absently drifted to BOB when the blob let out a snore, then back to Link. He was worried about the fish-ape, if he was to be perfectly honest with himself.

As he looked on at his friend, Link suddenly jerked in his sleep and screamed before sitting up in the bed, panting heavily. Dr. Cockroach popped up on his own cot in surprise, slightly frightened by the scream. BOB was awake too, looking around wildly for what was causing all the trouble.

"Link?" Dr. Cockroach asked, "What happened, are you all right?"

He was fairly certain the light was dim to anyone in the tent who wasn't a cockroach, but he could see clearly. He saw Link shake his head no before speaking the exact opposite, "Yeah, I'm fine, man. Just...just go back to sleep."

"You know I can see you, right?" Dr. Cockroach asked, "I saw you just shake your head."

"Doc, I'm fine, okay? It was just a nightmare."

He was visibly shaken, even upset. Dr. Cockroach honestly wasn't sure what to do. He'd never seen Link let anything get to him, and it was a little unnerving to know that the whole situation had led to nightmares. The scream that had escaped from Link when he'd woken up from the dream was unlike any noise Dr. Cockroach had ever heard him make.

He had been genuinely frightened.

"Link...you'd tell me if anything was wrong, right?" The question was worded improperly, and he hated that it sounded so wrong, but he couldn't think of another way to ask at this point in time.

He saw Link swallow hard, heard the heavy sigh, "Yeah...Doc...I think something's wrong."

These words sent a chill down his spine. Link was afraid.

"I...I keep seeing it," Link said, "in my head, whenever I close my eyes. I don't...I...Doc, I'm scared. I'm actually scared.

"And I don't know what to do..."

* * *

**Aww, poor Link!**

**I'm not sure why, but this chapter made me cry as I wrote it. I must be feeling depressed or something. *sigh***


End file.
